Burning Love Letters

1

Fire that cancels all that is

Devours paper and pen,

And makes of the heart's histories

A cold hearth warm again.

It could as well consume a branch,

Blank paper or black coal

That now, in ashy avalanche,

Scatters the heart whole.

2

What words led to the end of words?

Coldly, all separate sighs

Shiver in flame, flying upwards,

Merged into burnt lies.

In somersaults of light, words burn

To nothingness, then roll

In dead scrolls, delicate as fern,

Or hiss like a waterfall.

3

From partial feast to total fast,

From object to mirage,

An animal that cannot last

Appears in fire's cage:

Love's crazy dog in a cold sweat,

Far from its neighborhood,

Circles the puzzle of regret,

On fire in the wood.

4

Love's ashes lie and will not rise

As fire dies to a black sun

And makes of the heart's histories

A warm hearth cold again.

Cremation's scattered dust confronts

Dead vision, and in these

Ashes I write your name once,

Bending on cold knees.

~Howard Moss