"Exvangelical" by Jonathan Fletcher

Photo by: Scott Lee

Bonfire of the vanities
Florence, Italy
February 7, 1497

Flame long ago reduced
to ember, I miss the warmth,
not what I sacrificed.

I miss the certainty, not fear
of fire. I imagine myself
one with the wigs and cosmetics,
the playing cards and dice.
A Caravaggio, a mirror.
Blackened frame, melted glass.

Was this worth what I lost?
How to kindle ash and smoke?
Burn, Jonathan, burn.

Jonathan Fletcher holds a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Columbia University School of the Arts. His work has been featured in numerous literary journals, including Funicular, Epiphany, and The Plentitudes. A Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, and Best Microfiction nominee, he won Northwestern University Press’s Drinking Gourd Chapbook Poetry Prize contest in 2023, for which his debut chapbook, This is My Body, was published in 2025. Currently, he serves as a Zoeglossia Fellow and lives in San Antonio, Texas