Flame of the pale candle
Still seeming
Yet raging core of an unseen vortex
Where the physics of burning
Drew in atoms of oxygen
Dust motes
And the reeling moth
With sooty wings
Who flew too close.

But, unlike Icarus
Gathered the wax
Not lost it
Winnowed the fire
Not left it untouched
And did not plunge
Into an extinguishing sea.