White Embers

White embers adrift.
White embers at night.
White embers dimmed yellow
underneath the cast
of white flood lights.

White embers reluctant.
White embers hesitant.
White embers’ desire to leave
the heart of the fire,
single-filed, denied
by white knights in akubras
knee-high in the mire.

White embers kept safe.
White embers dissolved.
White embers in tiers,
Cold stays that last days.
White embers hold together
frayed edges of those
that remember white embers:

Once wild fires,
Now tamed by the hand.
White embers once embryos.
White embers once lambs.