One burning moment --
taffy-stretched to the edge of reason:

stretched so broadly that one 
can't fathom escape -
like Monkey on the Buddha's palm

One burning idea --
cloned, and then carved
to make infinite variants,
and painted infinite shades:
the dark tone of each
darker than the last

Burning ideas populating
the vast expanse of a
burning moment,
until the urge to escape
insists that one carve a hatch 
into living tissue

But what is it that does
the stretching of the burning moment
&
the cloning of the burning idea?

Can't that stretcher and cloner
 be wound back,
scaling all to proper proportions?

And can't it be done before 
that terminal instant 
is carved in jagged stone?