Burlesque - By: Amaud Jamaul Johnson

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.