like watching the dark

never darken past the blue

burn of an alcohol flame

igniting the purple bloom

in the fields of fireweed

stretched across the land

like a lavender perfume

wafting off a someone

you want to dance with

slowly tongue to tongue

in tiny untying circles

when three drinks in

at a party where everyone is

charming & smitten with new

like a third act in a teen

comedy where a beauty is

recognized to be sumptuous

without her glasses

it’s hard to see a thing

save this innumerable neon

light spilled on a rain-glossed

street like a gasoline puddle

prettied to rainbow by sun

I’m a match to strike

& flick into the fuel

action-movie-like

watch the flame leap lurid

bursting out of existence

the smoke snaking itself

into itself an uroboros

blurring into the inevitable

far darkness to come