~black Flame~ Comments

Great title - It pulled me in. This poem is a double portrait of Self and Other - two people whose union into one life seems blessed by compatibility, need, readiness, common cause, kindred spirits. With all these positives, How can it fail? It's the third factor after Self and Other, namely. the World, that frustrates this rapport from moving forward. Actually the reference to irony in the opening passage alerts us. These lives will not simply fold into each other the way natural processes fulfill themselves. And the poem details the woman's persecution and it is maddening and undeserved. The speaker is a witness to this; he does not participate or rescue. I can only assume there is some fourth element at work here and the Hand of Fate is involved. (Something is wrong with my computer - I have to take it in.)