Burn A Candle Poem by Felix Bongjoh

(i)

Burn a candle
and let light kiss a star
to spray the sky
with scars
beneath the sole.

Light a candle
to rise with the yellow spear
that shoots night
open to grow
a garden in sky's bowl.

Trigger a candle
with a lighter's kiss:
A toddler sniggers at you,

her face lantern-lit
with the deep wick

that steers a star
out of the dark stone
of night with a widowbird's tail,
night alone the flaming husband

breathing out butterflies
to grow a flapped grin
into ripples of gold
settled on a shifting sifted lake.

(ii)

Switch on a candle light
to burn in smoky air,
the only wax
that hurls back at man

a mirror of himself,
the silhouette with a face
as lengthy as an unfinished
trope with a snake's tail.

Put a yellow crown
on a candle and let
the curved flame
of a candleflower

blaze into the green bowl
of a butterfly's stroke,

(iii)

love not planted, not ignited,
but sailing to you
with the full wings of dawn

stretched to dusk
wearing a black suit of soot.
light a candle
when a spin on a baby's cheek

grows into a lake's ripples
doing the forearm stroke
under a butterfly's eyes
gazing at a stargazer's cheek.