Signature

This is the other poem that came out of January O'Neill's workshop at The Sanibel Island Writer's Conference.

 We were to write in description of something we found outside.

Wrapped in double metal strips
a polished twisted arrow-shaped
               piece of wood

lifting,
swirling,
leaping

"Flame in Flames"

charred section, 
              black burn-out 

sharp edges pierce the sky

It's a flame,
      a dancer,
       a mother twisted in grief

It rises from an X-shaped base
as if to say
"Here marks the spot
  we sign our names."