Fire in the leaves

I saw a tree 

The tree was spangled 

Not with angels 

But with freedom 

Green flames burned 

Like phosphor berries 

Mine eyes beheld 

The glory of the traffic lights 

I cheated my way 

Out of Blindness 

Like blindness cheated her way 

Out of the light 

By turning down the temperature 

Of the colours 

And their viridescent luminosity  

By showing them to me

In Elizabeth the 1st's 

Lead black mirror 

As black as her teeth 

And just as comely 

So I could look directly at the 

Fire in the leaves 

In the brake lights 

In the rain and the rats 

And the occasional wingéd person 

Like a TV presenter failing
To teach me

How to look directly at 

A partial eclipse of the sun.

31/07/17

Pic: "Blindness" by Victor Voitenko.