Watch the fire undress
him,
how flame fingers each
button,
rolls back his collar, unzips
him
without sweet talk or
mystery.
See how the skin begins to
gather
at his ankles, how it slips
into
the embers, how it
shimmers
beneath him, unshapen,
iridescent
as candlelight on a dark
negligee.
Come, look at him, at all his
goods,
how his whole body becomes
song,
an aria of light, a psalm’s
kaleidoscope.
Listen as he lets loose an
opus,
night’s national anthem, the
tune
you can’t name, but can’t stop
humming.
There, he burns brilliant as a
blue note.
