About Me
Charles on Fire:Another evening we sprawled about discussing/
Appearances. And it was the consensus/
That while uncommon physical good looks/
Continued to launch one, as before, in life/
(Among its vaporous eddies and false claims),/
Still, as one of us said into his beard,/
"Without your intellectual and spiritual /
Values, man, you are sunk." No one but squared/
The shoulders of their own unlovliness./
Long-suffering Charles, having cooked and served the meal,/
Now brought out little tumblers finely etched/
He filled with amber liquor and then passed./
"Say," said the same young man, "in Paris, France,/
They do it this way"--bounding to his feet/
And touching a lit match to our host's full glass./
A blue flame, gentle, beautiful, came, went/
Above the surface. In a hush that fell/
We heard the vessel crack. The contents drained/
As who should step down from a crystal coach./
Steward of spirits, Charles's glistening hand/
All at once gloved itself in eeriness./
The moment passed. He made two quick sweeps and/
Was flesh again. "It couldn't matter less,"/
He said, but with a shocked, unconscious glance/
Into the mirror. Finding nothing changed,/
He filled a fresh glass and sank down among us./-James MerrillI edited my profile with Thomas Myspace Editor V4.4 (www.strikefile.com/myspace)
