Fascination with Light
by Michael R. Burch

Desire glides in on calico wings,
a breath of a moth
seeking a companionable light,

where it hovers, unsure,
sullen, shy or demure,
in the margins of night,

a soft blur.

With a frantic dry rattle
of alien wings,
it rises and thrums one long breathless staccato

and flutters and drifts on in dark aimless flight.

And yet it returns
to the flame, its delight,
as long as it burns.

There's a longer version of "Fascination with Light" that adds the following stanza:

And still it returns on incessant wings—
ruthless grey monarch of the night air.
It flutters and stares
with huge primitive eyes, and it sees
beyond ruinous nights
to all the loveliness inherent there;
and it sings all the hideous despair
of its unworthiness, in a frenzy of wings;
and its desolate womb holds incurled in silk
the husks of dread kings and pale lovers.

Keywords/Tags: desire, passion, lust, moth, flame, light, attraction, wings, flight, night, delight, ecstasy