Torchlight

Water is in my mouth, a Nile is between my thighs,
I have come to extinguish the fire. --Ebers Papyrus, 1535 B.C.E.

Entering
_______you note this room
Needs a woman's touch, a tried quality
To treat the aching, that is your gaze your

Gauze, I've cast in civil language the sparks
Of the bedstraw, and its aging coming back
Further made up, yet this moment is our fluency:
Molded by sweat into the linen, a patient's indraft

Of dawn, yet like something the hand left off,
Placed firmly on a furnace grate too hot to the touch,
You turn the corner toward the tocsin curling
Up and over the hearth, the electrolier

Keeping my eyes on the electrician knowing
He is only
________a wire-pull away.