Not sweet like sugar—more like licorice

[joel]

Not sweet like sugar—more like licorice
from blackly tinted flavors underground
exposed: the spirit tongues of hopes enflamed
debut their choruses upon the stage
my lingual audience provides. And sweet,
so sweet, it is—like licorice in taste.
To pray is like to kiss a trusted friend;
and Pray and Kiss each other ought defend
from bitterness and shame, and yet not waste
their closest friendship honesties to greet
whatever shameful, bitter flames enrage
– like inward holocaust displays – reframed
by sensitive communion, sweetly bound
in earthiness like pitch black licorice.