—for my mother, Mary Mraz Culleny,
b. December 8, 1917
.
a cathedral steeple’s being launched,
snow swirls around its nave
so much stone to be sent aloft
on the spark of a solitary rose
to be thrust into something other
by the flame of a delicate rose
from cold to colder it will go
by the blaze of a redhot spot of life
from breath to unbreath it’ll rise
by the spitfire of a steadfast
solitary rose
Jim Culleny
12/08/12
Photograph by Abbas Raza
Blink 