Once You End a Love

"Then why do they fade?/My phantom parade of love" - Sam Cooke

When my brother was a child

He’d stare at our car’s cigarette lighter

Curiosity and desire 

One day he let his impulses reign 

A cry of pain

Then silence

I wonder if he still remembers 

Burnt finger mixed with car freshener

I wonder if he still stares at the lighter

With the same desire

Perhaps

But he knows better

Than to insist on error