Wax and Flame

Waxen candles sing, morning breaks the day,

Supple spines release, molten marrow streams;

Each drop becomes a pearl of light at play,

Litany of smoke claws apart my dreams.

*

Lethal fire gorges, a feast that offers more,

Licks exquisite wounds, hollows out the bone;

White faces sag, lifting above the floor,

Where tongues of ash leap high and writhe alone.

*

Ebony column, covenant past death,

Frozen throes, crows descend upon the rose;

God alone listens—memory of breath

slowly seeps; filth from sores that never close.

*

Wicks consume; loves burn with severity,

In sacred flames, silence yearns for etern—…