These Insufficient Words

Burn

Hey guys! This is a spoken word poem that I wrote in school recently, and the gestures were part of the presentation. They're in normal text, while the actual poem is in bold. I hope you like it! 

PS This is a thank you for 500+ reads. :) Love you all! 

Sometimes 

I want to burn everything down.

Did that get your attention? (Act angry, then get calmer)

Not to hurt anyone, though.

Never to hurt anyone. (Act innocent)

Just to

Begin everything over.

I just want to strike

A match, see the weak light

Flicker in the breeze of my breath, then feed it anything it wants.

Watch as it never eats enough.

I want to feel its heat from my nose

To my feet, as it blossoms as if a phoenix rose

And spread its fiery wings. (Open arms and spread like wings)

I'm not destructive, I'm deductive, and what I've discovered

Is a secret I must share. (Act like whispering a secret)

If it's good and you don't express its best

It doesn't mean a thing.

So I'll tell mine. I'm coming clean

And you'll see what I mean when I tell you

I've got to get my music out before I die.

Sometimes

I want to burn everything down.

My armored shell, the pell-mell heaven and hell of high school, the thoughts 

On which I dwell. The walls of lies

I hide behind, the shut-out mind that'd never (crosses arms in a sweeping motion)

See the good in anything.

But what'd happen then?

I'm trying it right now.

I lit the spark in my heart. I can feel it (Say energetically)

Start to spread, but so (Change expression to one of fear)

Does a feeling of dread. The flame is smoking, I'm

Choking on the words I've never spoken. I can't breathe... (Hold throat)

This is killing me!––

Then the clouds break. I take a breath that sounds like (Take deep breath) Death himself.

The fire dies, and I rise to the smoke covering, hovering over the town.

I brush my chimney-sweep face and stand...

And I

Finally

See.

The ground of the town is marred, charred from the greedy flames that

Licked up the remains of Earth's delicious terrains.

Black ash, brown dirt.

All other color is gone... (Get quieter throughout)

Except for a speck of green.

I stoop down (Stoop down), and my vision fills

With a tiny stalk. A shoot of

Life, the one thing

Death's bullet (Make a finger gun and pretend to shoot)

Always seems to miss. (Dodge the bullet)

Pushing through that

Black ash, brown dirt,

And laughing (throw head back and laugh while saying laugh)

In Death's face because Life

Means death, but Death

Brings Life.

Sometimes

I want to burn everything down.

So when Life

Triumphs over Death yet again, I'll be watching.

What I've learned

Is that you get burned

When you touch a flickering flame. But the

Black ash, brown dirt,

They help

Life grow again from the

Life that had been. Let the good things grow

Like they should, could, and will. 

Sometimes

I want to burn everything down. (Hands out, then down)

I know the blaze won't ever faze

The spin cycle on the washing machine of this world (Spin hands in circles like you're playing patty-cake)

That melds

Life and Death (hold up left then right hand) together into

Infinity. (Clasp hands)

But it'll change

Me, (point to self)

And I'm part (open hands for left index finger) of

Infinity. (Close hands again)

That's why (drop hands)

Sometimes

I want to burn everything (sweep hands) down.

Because sometimes, that's exactly

What this universe needs, (open arms wide)

What this world needs, (close them a little)

What I need. (Point to self, then bow head)