Black Eyed Man
from the dream
you awoke
and spoke of us
naked under
a tree
made of
fire
you said we
had died
and found
each other
there
on the edge
of time
bleeding
and fucking
under a tree
made of
fire
and now
after years
beyond
your passing
I imagine
you there
waiting
patiently
for me
to arrive
the black
eyed man
who held
my empty
pale soul
beyond
the storms
of internal
rage
beyond the
demons
of dark
winds
naked
and waiting
under a tree
made of
fire
Campfire Condolences
I let the soot stain my fingertips ashen grey, pinching the corner of a splintered log as I toss it further into the metal pit.
I imagine how tired the flames must be. Most refer to a fire as raging, as angry as a hellhound biting at the confines we try haplessly to keep it within.
But would a fire not burn so bright, not burn so fiercely that it wishes to rest? Because as the flames turns to ash, the wood burnt something terrible there squats it's assailant, blowing on its ruin and trying to catch carcass to cardboard.
I try to clean up its disarray with my own, and it feels as though helping a comrade to its feet around the shrapnel of stainless steel.
I tend to this fire as though its a tangible peace of me, tend it solely until it shows sign of exhaustion, and smile when it lets out a relieved sigh as I douse it before bed. Watching it twirl and dance above the sky top of the tent, feeling just the bit lighter for it all.
A Final Date in the Journal
clouds came, acknowledged
from the desert, a nod to the sea... shore
combing the hair of our beach... lit
in the wind, seeds like shells
of us, burning the soles...
at our feet, and none
shall ever follow... again
follow the footsteps
like we did... as pages
follow you, like I did
my phantom shadow
going west, holstered
into fatal sunset...
Firelight
“I suppose I did
love her,” Braelyn said.
A log crackled, spit
glowing flecks against
the dark. She might have
had more to say, but
not to us.
I sat with Ashley in
tree-broken moonlight
watching her sister,
drinking. Ashley leaned
close, shared my jacket
while the fire fell. We
cooked nothing and told
no stories. We sat with
Braelyn, watching embers
fade to ash.
March 11, 2024
Grit & Grace
You stand amid the ashes, beautiful in your rawness,
a phoenix cloaked in shadows,
dirt smeared across your cheeks like war paint.
Gritty resilience etched in every line of your face,
you are the embodiment of both storm and sanctuary.
You've danced with the flames, haven't you?
Let them lick at your scars, turning pain into power,
fear into fuel.
Each ember, a soft, fluffy touch
against the hardened layers you’ve worn like armor.
In the fire's embrace, you find purity—
a cleansing so profound,
it strips away the veneer of your past selves,
leaving only the essence of your being,
dark yet dazzling.
Set it alight, let the flames rise,
watch them consume the doubts,
the past whispers of 'never' and 'too much.'
In this conflagration, you are reborn,
not from the ashes, but from the blaze itself.
Beautiful, dirty, gritty, dark, fluffy—
you are all these things and none,
transformed by the inferno's kiss,
a testament to the power of fire
to cleanse, to change, to liberate.
purify me
I counted myself in bruises
I counted myself in scars
touching myself like a rough sketch
dented and pressed in
by the cursive lines
of your blazing, deep-scorched love
callused fingers
imprinting themselves
in the tattooed road map of my spine
these flames of yours
branding stars into my skin
( ash-colored freckles that you like so much on me )
I get so lost on you
turning greedily into dust
only to find myself
as my fire consumes everything in its reach
demolish me, love
purify my sins
cleans the dirt from under my bones
speak to me in fire
in light
in the language of all our past lives
light me on fire one last time
when it's cold, let me warm you
feed my letters to the flames
make me eat my words
"I'll love you forever,
I'll never leave you"
let me go, but before i leave,
light me on fire one last time
dispassionately,
let me cook you dinner
let me light the candles on the table
let me leave before you pour the wine
the blood is mine,
kiss me, kill me,
light me on fire one last time
release me
with eyes bloodshot and brilliant
sharpen your kitchen knives
eat me, cremate me,
light me on fire one last time
my smile is warm, my cheeks are red
blushing, burning in the firelight
red, blood on the ledger
mistakes fade into ash,
into the clean black of night
all that's left is:
light me on fire one last time
By Fire
She dances in the wind
Her vivid colors twisting, pinned
Against the backdrop of the nightsky
A warm embrace, one touch, you die
Ashes to ashes
Dust to dust
Reborn in her trust
The world crashes
Yet you rise
Like the phoenix, a reprise
What once was, will never be
In her flames, gone are the sea
Of sorrows, worries and pain
Everything set to gain
A blank slate
A new fate
An empty canvas
With endless paint
Not Hot Enough
Cremation's afoot
In a mortal's rite of passage
With the guilt and the soot
Only immortality can ravage
I watch through lead glass
The burning of flesh
Sublimating fed gas
To a soul's final crèche
Corpulent dispatch
Ashen crumbs fall to gravity
But the soul unattached
Flees a legacy's depravity
It panics in luminescence
Running from the fire
Suffers trapped evanescence
Incomplete in the pyre
Absolution fails, fruitless lavage
Leaving cindered memories that suffer alive
Rejecting any respite from life's cruel barrage
Retrieving the regrets that reveries revive
How much hotter does it need to be
To cleanse souls' sins that fear infinity?
How long should I burn it, to no longer see
An evil man's soul begging for clemency?
I look closely and, painfully, inspect the bearer
Of a remorseless face begging, baselessly, for mercy
I cannot unsee, vacantly, the eyes of the terror
Of a soul that embraces atonement's eternity