Steve is burning

by Renee Emerson

all of the candles Melinda
bought and bought, boxes
stacked in the basement
for weddings, showers,
parties never given.

Day and night,
in every room
Steve is burning
the long white tapers
set in silver holders,
fingers pointed at God.

Using them up, Steve says.
Wax drips in tears, pools
in pale ovals at their feet.

On the kitchen counter,
the dining table, on any
clear surface, candles
lifted up like saviors
on their Golgothas.

Their flickering tongues saying
everything Steve wants them to say.

::

Renee Emerson is the author of the poetry collections Keeping Me Still (Winter Goose Publishing 2014), Threshing Floor (Jacar Press 2016), and Church Ladies (Fernwood Press 2023). She is also the author of the chapbook The Commonplace Misfortunes of Everyday Plants (Belle Point Press), and the middle grade novel Why Silas Miller Must Learn to Ride a Bike (Wintergoose Publishing 2022). She lives in the Midwest with her husband and children.

Image: Aleksandr Zaitsev

ID: A white candle burning.