Candle

yours is a heavenly fire
a burning bush say
an easter mad with premonition
and disaster miracles

while the dome crumbles microsecond
tumble of hot ash in drone frame
orange cross of hollow roof cave
the oak timbers 1000 years old

donate carbon to the faithful earth

for you the solid faith the thorn of crown
relic of the bygone by now beginning
not in doubt but belief the crackling spire
sinking into its masterly mystery and easter eggs

witches once burned Joan amongst them
icons of evolving faiths temperaments war expedience
the mad crisscross of beam and tenon mortice or
dowel compression buttress all before the forest

melted down the revolving church stood
welcoming the sun god beyond its wafer
and wine contraceptions the grandchildren
cope with will and watch it burn

the bishop’s seat prayer cushion singed
how many pews and prayers
are charcoal for the sky reflecting
the pumped up Seine and the deluge
of damage to fact and fiction

Quasimodo must now compose
a sequence for your un-cracked bells
and ring the chimes for towers loved
the towering twins of Paris aglow

whose silhouette is the cast of hope
from heaven’s shadow to squint of dawn
through smoke that clouds the sky
sheltering time from earths and gods

md