Stone-cheeked

stone-cheeked red man gazed into the sparks from whence he came—his fathers, too 

cracks at corner-eye, each a line of divination in his past

up from brown bowls he glance his future 

half-red son stares that same flame

it burns in him too, but dimmer

a fraction of the father, all sons

from flame to flame we lose ourselves

one crack, one glance, one father at a time