match

something quiet

snuffed out inside my chest.

like a match blown out:

a brightness gone to rest.

i cannot grasp,

try as i might,

the smoke that dances

in the fading twilight.

it waltzes (elusive)

sashays away,

leaving a retina-imprint

of a flame short-to-stay.

its twisting pattern rises,

dissolves into the sky,

snakelike in curvature:

elongated wave goodbye.

warmth savored briefly,

 shadow of forgotten glow,

sweetly imagined memory,

bewitching burial echo.