wb :

Fire, fire, mark my pyre
Deep and brilliant as sapphire
At the edges of the evening
Clad in thorn and wrapped in briar

When the naked night is brooding
A cocoon of cold desire
Out a fire-moth is breaking
Taking wing, the morning's crier

And the serpent sings a beat
In the darkness of the heat
Shadow dance, the soul is shier
Moonlight-shod and starlight-cleat

Rising in the smoke-shot ember
Tell me, are you friend or liar?
Every word that I remember
Followed me from old December

Naked on November's feet
Nursed the wolfess at the teat
Laid in fur, the toil and tire
Thawing on the snowy sheet

Who the slave, and who the sire?
Fang to neck and claw to loin
Sweating, swirling, vies the vier
As the tongues of flame enjoin

Silhouette, the moon's defeat
Wax and wane, the weeks repeat
On the silence of the shire,
Bold as pewter, black as peat

Stands the bear, his stillness sober
In the distance of October
Whereto does your roar aspire?
When you face the white disrober

Snake who whispers, tongue a-quiver
Wolfess howling at the fire
Bear who wades the dreaming river
Bring me from this mortal mire

As the phoenix from the silk
Drank his fill of midnight's milk
Dreaming, dead, the dawning dire
Fire, fire, mark my pyre.