spit and crackle of the striking, a flare,
blue-yellow, a huge hovering of shadows,
sad sweetness of smoke and
dark: light ephemeral, to be clutched
at cost of singed skin, regret, remorse:
an enlightenment of matches
a comfort of lamps:
one window
warm and flickering through driven rain;
clear buttery light on pillar, tapestry, vault,
breathing cavern, barren sand, living tree,
the celebrant's living hands engoldened, transformed,
holding flame: stillness or sweet voices,
haloed wicks curl in haze, a holiness of candles
buffet of wind, throat-catch of kerosene,
rattling casements, lash of hail: poles down,
sirens hunting, the house shivers, pages turn
in a steady twilight of cotton wick
and sooted chimney: a defiance of lanterns
hiss-and-whump, from the iron diadem
erupts a sudden hot blue jewellery:
fogged glass, bright copper, steam and steel,
shriek of kettle, bubble of pot, day's repose:
a certainty of gas-rings
whistling white fury, blowtorch, rocket,
dazzling, brief, a startlement of pine cones. and
baroque traceries write and erase themselves
in red heat on flaking gray, model avalanches
settle and bring forth flame out of dust: a renaissance
of embers. and new constellations form and blow away,
suns blaze and die spinning, a dance of dragons
haunts the mountain, the chimney issues
a giddiness of sparks
black, gray, black, weight upon weight and the harsh flash
of the biggest camera; then afterimage and rumour of world's end;
some cower, some breathless whisper again, again,
courting storm's passion, an evanescence of lightning
little, little the arc across conductors, small fire
ignites the fuel-sodden, crowded air; and
again. and again, and multiplied, a smooth roaring,
and the unseen hand on your chest, the push, and the road rushes
towards, under, is eaten: acceleration, freedom,
flight, a chorus, a choreography of spark plugs
minuscule the arc across dendrites, the unheard crackle and spit
of ganglia: neuron speaks to neuron as fortresses once spoke,
by watchfires, by flares, by evanescent lightnings;
hiss-and-whump, infinitesimal roar of cells igniting,
faithful messengers, defying time and grief: a startlement,
an enlightenment of skin is signalled as with lanterns
across the body's long dark sea to where
countless candlelit windows cluster: the temple, the vast metropolis
of self, acknowledges a comfort, a giddiness,
a holiness, a holiness of small fires.
-- GPL 1988 D. A. Clarke