clang. clang.
The metal sung joyfully each strikes.
Passion is a dancing flame.
The greatest passion can churn
the sea.
Yet it can also fade like flickering embers.
A passion, can leave behind lasting debris.

The excessive wind blows hot air into the front of me.
It leaves my hoodie fluttering behind my body, only held up by my shoulders.
My hands remain on my sides, and my head is tilted.
Despite the wind and the thing in front of me, my feet are firm on the ground.

The flames are reflected in my dead eyes.
The sound of firemen and ambulances should be all that I hear,
but all I can hear is the sound of my breathing.
The wood crumbles, as the flames dance on their dying bodies.

Tears fall from my eyes, but I do not change expression.
I feel a hand firmly grab my arm, but still I don’t budge.
I feel my feet being lifted from the ground, and I follow the house with my eyes
I’m moved into a cop car

I put my hand on the car window, still following the house with my eyes.
My breath leaves blurry spots on the clear window.
The embers burn brightly, destroying everything I had.
but with the dark sky and the glistening stars, it looks beautiful.

Once the fire leaves my vision, I break down.

Twice
by Michael R. Burch

Now twice she has left me
and twice I have listened
and taken her back, remembering days

when love lay upon us
and sparkled and glistened
with the brightness of dew through a gathering haze.

But twice she has left me
to start my life over,
and twice I have gathered up embers, to learn:

rekindle a fire
from ash, soot and cinder
and softly it sputters, refusing to burn.

Originally published by The Lyric. Keywords/Tags: relationship, reunion, reuniting, parting, breakup, breaking up, fire, embers, soot, cinder, cinders, sputter, sputters, sputtering, cold, ash, ashes

It’s a crime
to paint such flowers
with so crude a brush.
Your skills, my lord,
confound me
and I present myself
to you humbly.
Your fingers are
calloused
and jagged, their edges
can cut if you’re not careful.
You touch so soft
your skin to mine
and I sizzle in your grasp.
You are the warmest
part of me and
even you are now
embers, but it is not
my duty anymore
to stoke the ashes,
as deeply as I wish
you would burn again for me.
A flick of the eyes
and a trick of the tongue
are welcomed warmly
by my singing heart.

we once were
weren’t we?
oh how we could have
been more?
different now though
happy with our paths
who knows
where we would be?
still that lingering
possibility
that more was there
i am now here
you are there
impossible
to compare
Still with
all the love
in our lives
there’s that
undying
spark still
in the embers