layer cake, 7

candle wicked flames flicker out
beads of blistering waxy wishes,
rolling soft onto frosty sweet
standard yellow and vanilla white

up in smoke my birthday bellows

wilting ash worn wicks glow,
into cinders and embers adrift
smoky spirals to climb nostrils
for one pair of lungs to fill

holding anticipation to extinguish

dreams, spilling out in moments
each light lost to the tempest
one by, one by one brittle husk
to be stripped away at last

the procession stands at the ready

some silver dullness cuts deep
that yellow layer, layer, layer
leaving holes like new graves
until the last piece is consumed