Candlelight Vigil

Are the most effective upsets bought with blood

holy conflagrations in which we histrionically melt

Must we enact Great Terrors

to heal great wounds

I don't want to ask, but I need to learn –

Which is the best way to burn?

The shattering of a fiery bottle -

In sudden gasoline fury –

With the measured patience of coal –

Or lost Greek Fire flaming the enemy’s ship

It's not so clear when the enemy could prove to be

a mirror image at ramming speed

Are the best kind of revolutions slow and sure as the world slightly wobbles

Settling into the radioactive pull of the paternal sun?

I wish I knew how to handle this match in my hand, lit and racing toward skin

Because there's a whole box full of them and

I don't know if I should halt the immolation, or begin