Two Ways to be a Flame

Two Ways to be a Flame

Betsy K. Brown

The flame in the little, squat glass
Is doing a perpetual jig
Like an unselfconscious young girl.
She scrunches and stretches and stands,
She bows and blesses the air
With busy child’s hands.

I catch sight of her from across the room
And accidentally smile. The small holy
Fool will draw others into her happy
Flicker until all of her fuel runs out.

The taper’s flame
Points, icon-like,
So still. She stands
In her white robe
Which runs in tiers
Over a straight
Spine, a tall spire.
A mandorla
Glows motionless
Behind her face.

I make eye contact with her ‘cross the room
And stop all that I’m doing, save slow breaths.
She will be a beacon until the day
She touches earth again in grace-filled gray.

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Betsy K. Brown
Poet & Teacher

Betsy has been published in Circe Institute, Relief Journal, AWP’s The Writer’s Notebook, and Curator Magazine. She is also a monthly columnist for the Institute for Classical Education. You can read more of her work at betsykbrown.com

Photography by Chrissie Giannakoudi