[RCL]

The cosmos. . .always was
and ever shall be ever-living fire.
Heraclitus

O Phoenix Culprit!

My life’s consumed by fire
with every breath I take,
and feverish from its heat,
I dream while I’m awake

of rosy-fingered dawns
the ancient bards admire
that falling fold to fists
as daylight’s dying fire;

of leaves on apple trees,
their glorious green subsiding,
that flare like fuses, fall
to death, yet trees abiding;

of the flaming fallen phoenix,
transformed again to ashes,
that sparks itself and rises,
flies high before it crashes;

of Adam’s skull beneath
the crux, now orthodox,
replacing Eden’s tree—
the felix paradox.

Title phrase is from James Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake