Climbing Up Out Of The Ashes

Sparking A Fire

I never felt heat other than shame til I melted in your arms.
Like a match tanned and blackened, waiting for the strike,
To be picked up between your two fingers,
Stiffly held among the heated blue, red fires.
You kept me hovered over the flame as if you were pondering,
Did you think I would not catch it?
The flame on my teeth? My toes? My hair? My skin??
The heat consumed me,
sparks of light glowing everywhere that I walked beside you.
The days you left me the fire died away slowly leaving me a tepid cool,
clammy skin slick from the sweat when I had bathed in your flames, this creation of longings.
I stuck to daily life's chores the way peanut butter sticks to the roof of mouths,
constricting speech, annoying distraction.
Then you came back,
My body not a thin match anymore but a thick squarish piece of coal.
you pick me up using the strength of your fist,
weighing the debate in your thoughts of what you want done to me,
Building a fire from the remains of my bleating, charred up heart.