I.
are you through with
courting memory,
with being saved
are you mad,
have you learned laughter,
to act without words
are you brave
or just tired of that metric
are you moth-drawn to sublimity now
(you reside on the inside of the flame)
are you well-rendered,
are you drawn in or
down
do you laugh now
roll in soil
name each pomegranate
weep when warranted
forgo requests
give your name freely
forgive all fathers
stand behind silence
pull up the stakes from
the ground around beauty
like a fire that consumes all before it
II.
you reside on the inside of the flame,
on the backs of the eyelids of all gods worth praising.
are you outside the arc
of the arrow of time -
that thin parabola
where what flies is always burning
with decision, direction,
the fatal assurance
of an ending in ash
are you plasma-burning on the waves now
beyond reclamations
or portrayals
do you laugh now
III.
because names are given,
they are hard to take away
but this also means
they are hard to shake off
do you sometimes let it get to you,
all this image
when what haunts your memory
is faceless
are you ashen with desire
(it comes only in the memory of fire)
but no one can take a name,
not really.
