Birthday Party

While they were
Singing birthday
You presented
In the door

With an offering
Of sugar and a flame

In ancient times
They burned
Burned a heady
Mix of herbs

To stir the gods
And ask them to delay

Not the drying
of the rivers
Not the rising
of the seas
Not the vanish
of the glow worm
or faithful honey bee

But the stalking, tiny palsies
As memories begin
To bourgeon
Like a snowdrift

Then to gather in
a door
Like a party lost
It's host

While they were
Singing birthday
I was noticing
Your hands

The way I'd never seen before
That they were shaking

#NaPoWriMo 2014 poem number 23

This poem appears in

Wire Walkers