EVE OF ST. JOHN by Shea Ellen Rich

_
                    after a painting by Peter Hurd

cup the flame
and feel the heat
burning in the low fields
burning the mountains
blue, in the cool dusk
burning your cheeks and
the insides of your fingers.
Don't smile. But stare
at the origin of fire
feel how it can warm
like a dream and burn
like a fever. Then hold
the thin candle deep into the night
deep, deep into the black night
and be still, very still, until
the light
goes
out.