Ten Ways of Looking at a Candle (after Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, by Wallace Stevens)

I
Don't give me
Candles on the cake
To equal my age
Give me one colourful sparkler
To aspire to.

II
The plain girl and her mother
On the sidelines of the local
Festival Parade
Watching the parade princess float by
   she and her entourage
   gifting the onlookers with
   their beauty-queen assets
And the mother’s sidelong glance witnesses her girl's
Wistful expression
And so she begins
That very day
To teach her girl to measure herself differently.
The mother shapes her lesson in the old-fashioned words of her
Own mother, who once gently held her girl and said,
My darling,
They couldn't hold a candle to you.

III
You burn with ambition, your stare a laser-light
While
I shimmer back and forth between dreams.

IV
You can't hold the candle, my lovey,
You're still too young.
But let me show you how to gaze into the flame
And read what is to come
One day.

V
Ceramic angel figure with bent wire wings
Blinds drawn against the world
Long, straight back
Tea-light flame
Meditation.

VI
Evolution of light:
Fire
Fire tamed
Fire contained
Fire controlled by wick
Fire replaced by science
Light once leaping orange, ochre, blonde
Now scientifically white
Held in bulbs
In curly bands
In straight bands
In teardrop glass
No dancing with air
No setting of mood
No softening visage
No scent.

VII
The flicker 
Before the smoke rises
Like a soul to heaven.

VIII
Soft light
To accompany the soft blanket
Of your love.

IX
I lit a candle
Not like the supplicant would at church
Adding to a tiered display of prayers and tributes
But a lone, solid flame
Reflecting
The bravery of your life.

X
Friday night's ritual
Incomplete without the candle
Sending liquid light into your wine.