Graced by Singe and Shadow

Imagine, if you will, being
               singe: fiery blackness incomplete;
               shadow: a solid’s castoff, draped and fallen
 
Hint of flame’s desire to flee
              flagrant conflagration
              (which may destroy . . . or purify)
 
Reside in silhouettes
 
Become hot comb’s scar on tender nape,
                shirt placket’s stain       page’s crisp flaking
 
                                until
 
Kindred spirit masks      be / speak
                to grace us both warm shadow
                shedding light on Heaven’s favor
 
Bestow
                a spell     with / in     these moments
                to read me clear     pass words     like “victual”
                (sea silent; u suits itself to suite tea)
 
Then burrow under hinge of noon
                to get the picture:
 
Mind, on set “ours” poetica foretells
                you are maker too--
 
                of bound tradition (and off-the-cuff)
 
                barbed warble     medley     riff
 
                eminent emanation     street talk     guff
 
                ancestral echo’s ricochet