between what comes to you,
sizzzzzzle smile-forming
knowing insular yes, and the reception
among friends, imps, long-goners:
this warm squirt of pure utopia
in the good and bad worlds,
in the sand and high trees, the succulent needles,
the leathery sway of chimpanzees' knees is this:
whoever thought to make a life
from the pulse of fire, the lust
to burn
then offer it sickly back