Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Flash-Paper Love




having tasted suspended animation
the age when time passes slowly
hours like weeks, days like years
intimacy amplified, exaggerated
youth’s flint igniting a flame, intense
brief, a magician’s flash-paper
the shock flare’s blinding instant
vanishing to nothing
not even ash

we are fortunate scattered sparks
showered onto time’s thick mattress
pinholes burned through the ticking
smoldering for years like days
then bursting forth full-grown
catching curtains, wallpaper
ceiling beams, cedar shingles ablaze;
we bring down the house, consume everything
send wildfires racing off into forest and field.


Andrine de la Rocha
May 2005

Posted 8/21/2012