Jennifer Shneiderman
The pull station taunts
like the last of the sangiovese
my heart was so full
for a night
then silence
the first alarm sounds
no answer, a three alarm
then a 16-alarm Brooklyn Hotel St George
standpipe threads stripped bare
the fire rages
covered in tamper dye
taking my pocketful of matches and
walking away.
Jennifer Shneiderman is a writer and a Licensed Clinical Social Worker living in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared, or is forthcoming, in Indolent Book’s HIV Here and Now, The Rubbertop Review, Writers Resist, Variant Literature, Bright Flash Literary Review, Trouvaille Review, Montana Mouthful, the Daily Drunk, Sybil Journal, Unique Poetry, Anti-Heroin Chic, Terror House, Thirteen Myna Birds, Potato Soup Journal, Awakened Voices, GreenPrints, Prospectus, Autumn Sky Poetry Daily, The Perch, Planet Scumm, Angel City Review, Brown Bag Online, Nanoism, Kingz Daily, Harpy Hybrid, Dwelling and Scarlet Leaf Review. She was the recipient of an Honorable Mention in the 2020 Laura Riding Jackson poetry competition.