It's not likely to happen,
but should it, it would strike
without warning. No smoke
rising from your fingertips
or fire raging in your belly.

You might be finishing
the crossword, feeding the cat,
finally writing your mother,
when suddenly your body
will give off this fantastic heat
and you will shine bright
as a winter star.

There won't be anyone
around to show off
this new-found gift
and not enough time to prove
that you discovered that the source
of all this wonderful power
must have been beating
quietly inside you all along.

Jamie Wasserman's poetry and fiction have appeared in Exquisite Corpse, Weber Studies, Flesh and Blood, Vampire's Dan Story Emporium, Magma, Clay Palm Review, frisson, and dozens of others. His poem "Why I Believe in Ghosts" received an honorable mention from the 2002 Year's Best Fantasy and Horror anthology. For more about him, visit his website.