pristine by candle light

The miracle of life
        and its peculiarities
            can wake one
                in the middle of the night.
Like a dream
        freezing itself solid,
            its magnificence, its mass,
                crystallizing, day by day,
                    year by year,
  can thaw as sudden
            as a summer storm,
and yet the majesty remains,
        to kindle like the mystery of flame,
            to leap gelatinous heat,
                consume the air
                    we breathe,
  to conceive absurdities
            of histories and Hell.