Phoenix

Desecration

You’re standing where I dare not tread,
feathers littering the floor.
Shredding beauty, eyes aglow with
goals too dangerous to ignore.
How dare you tear my lovely wings?
How could you stain my world?
Your sharpened teeth drip deep red stain
as your great claws unfurl.

I can only touch this light,
a fire you don’t possess.
And by this act I’ll be consumed,
your loss, to your distress.
Nested in this jagged flame,
I’m blackened by my cage;
charred by a light too bright,
too pure, to ever touch unscathed.

Now, you reach for what you lost,
just dust, there are no coals.
Vacant worlds gaze from your face.
Where are those ugly goals?
Your sifting fingers find a lump.
You lift the black remains
and hug the object near your heart
as though it gives you pain.

Smooth beneath your fingertips,
found oval round and soft,
a gentle light begins to shine
through death and murk and dust.
You may touch the hidden truth,
a gift not often given.
Peering through translucent shell
You’ll see where I am hidden.

What will you choose, dear broken soul?
The light that will consume?
Or will you let your arrogance
create your final tomb?
I am the same as you, you know.
No better, maybe worse.
This light that has now set me free
was dead and reborn first.

By flame consumed,
by flame I’ll rise,
enraptured by the fire.

Pure and redeemed,
remade, reborn,
by death I’m made alive.

Redemption