Love Poem: Catherine Wheel
Tony Bush Avatar
Written by: Tony Bush

Catherine Wheel

Kate. 
Catherine Wheel. 

Left only char-mark traces on 
this dirty laundry line post; 
unrequited love so brightly shone 
scarred by a pyrotechnical ghost. 

Spun. 
Vibrant fire.

White hot with turquoise spangled eyes, 
burnt, exploded, rattled death; 
as tails of auburn fireflies 
blew kisses of fleeting gossamer breath.

Flash. 
Sudden dark.

Spectral afterburn, protoplasmic and cold 
then nothing save a vacant space; 
dreams and youth fell numb and old 
in the vacuum of a lost embrace.

Kate. 
Catherine Wheel.

Spent firework, beckons yet she warns 
burnt offerings are the end of it; 
a heart may ache and forever mourn, 
some things should never be re-lit.