Image: Unsplash, downloaded (https://unsplash.com/photos/XOQJa4OC8P0) 16.1.2022.
Observing Firelight
When you watch a candle,
Its balletic fire
A torrent
Of seemingly unending heat,
A sharp fixed point
Of gulped air,
And silence
Metes a breathless rhapsody
Of death,
And there are instants
Of stillness,
When the flame flickers
Out, then continues,
Backed by equal moments
Of surging light,
Where blue flickers
– in milliseconds –
Cohere,
Then vanish,
Tracelessly,
A soliloquy
Of continuance.
About the Author: A poet, part-time academic in narratological complexity, and financial journalist, Dublin born Oisín Breen's widely reviewed debut collection, ‘Flowers, all sorts in blossom, figs, berries, and fruits, forgotten’ was released Mar. 2020.
Breen has been published in a number of journals, including About Place, Door is a Jar, Northern Gravy, The Blue Nib, Books Ireland, The Seattle Star, ZiN Daily, La Piccioletta Barca, The Bosphorus Review of Books, The Kleksograph, In Parentheses, The Madrigal, and Dreich magazine.
