Burning Night
(illuminate)
The shades of trees retreat
beyond the bright circle
as we stretch cold hands toward fire
lit to banish a few hours of darkness
before summer is extinguished.
Voices compete
with the luster of flames
as hotdogs and guitars pass
from hand to hand.
The seething fiend
caught within its sunken iron ring
behaves for now, sustains
the gathering with warmth and sight
with community and s’mores.
(flicker)
Our solitary beacon stops
at the wall of encircling trees.
Their haggard hands cast
a jerky shadow show
faceless puppets straining
against the deeper dark.
(smolder)
Within the shrinking boundary
between the fire and the night
we stare into the embers
just you and I.
Time turns to ash around us
and I almost grasp
the concept of eternal flame.
Seconds flare into hungry minutes
minutes crumble into hours.
But now — the endless now
that expands my empty skin
like a balloon filled with smoke
bleeds my mundane sight away —
now the hours rise
tangled with the embers.
Both are lost among the stars.
(conflagrate)
If the eyes are the soul’s window
I see through yours a house ablaze.
A single errant ember
can ignite a forest.
I want to run from this inferno
a deer with hellhounds snapping at its hooves
but I retreat into my nylon fortress
zip up the gates
and shut my eyes against the light.
(burn)
Night yields
at last to the smoke-gray dawn.
Chill dew on my tent nips
my hands, the soft chitter
of an earlier bird than me
greets me from a twiggy finger.
I rebuild the fire
sit and sip my too-hot coffee.
It scalds my tongue.
