but only gradually

but only gradually

 

up and over it rolls

like smoke gently

rotating up up and

lightly away from

a bed of live coals

rising and roiling

climbing to define

its emancipation

a fine figural blur

gently writing as

it writhes in it’s

hinted at pleasure

ethereal yet replete

in hedonists garb

of a velvety grey

twisting erotically

catching the light

& casting it back

with both a deft

and effortless grace

that’s a precursor

to its swift slick

disappearance

its sudden posting

of absence that

both surprises us

and describes in

the same instant

the outré nature

of this enigma

whose afterimage

the only presence

that it beguilingly

leaves us to ponder

itself fades away

but only gradually