"The Flame Thrower Becomes an Expression

The Flame Thrower Becomes an Expression of
Erotic Desire
an erasure from Guidebook for Marines, 1954

by Ellen Kombiyil

a
man drove wild a
blazing

man
propelled
by air

,

by flame
.

A.

even you
ricochet
from wall to wall
you

inside

the

parties

or

in
the

street or jungle

you

,

ample

and

tan

,

your body

which

clings to

small

openings does not
billow

while burning.

B.

the shoulders

the arm pits The lower body

The upper body
the chest

the right
hand the grip the left hand

a person
a void

the

person

coupling

the

coupling

un

coupling

head

hand

back

ass

hiss

flash

.

Ellen Kombiyil (she/her) is a visual artist, poet, and educator from the Bronx. She is currently at work on a project of “erasing war” and creating original erasures, collages, and visual art from war ephemera in the Western canon. Her latest poetry collection, Love as Invasive Species (Cornerstone 2024) is a tête-bêche exploring matrilineal inheritances. Her visual art has been displayed at Emerge Gallery and is published in Action Spectacle, Bear Review, DIAGRAM, TAB, Quarterly West, Radar Poetry, and The Indianapolis Review and she has new poems appearing in Cherry Tree, NELLE, Second Factory, Sixth Finch, Up the Staircase Quarterly, and Tahoma Literary Review. A graduate of the University of Chicago and Hunter’s MFA program, she currently teaches writing at Hunter College. Find her at www.ellenkombiyil.com.

​The Flame Thrower Becomes an Expression of Erotic Desire an erasure from Guidebook for Marines, 1954

The Flame Thrower Becomes an Expression of
Erotic Desire
an erasure from Guidebook for Marines, 1954