Shari's Telling Stories

My day fills with
inhaling moments events
ingesting the grand small
joyous sorrowful
the all-but-overlooked;
these are my fuels.

Combustible elements
roiling through my
ignitable heart and mind,
stirring my sensibilities.
The mixture consumes me
      is me.
Excited molecules expanding
through ever increasing friction
will out
in whatever form it chooses.

Poor life…events…people
make to constrain me;
not understanding
I’m on a mission
to continue myself.
They get too close and are
licked by errant flames—
      poor them.

Salvation, though temporary,
comes when I submit, fall victim.
The flame consumes me
      is me.
Fire writes through my fingers
non-stop ’til the heat within abates,
spending everything.
The throbbing
in the back of my head
leaves me, eyeballs
no longer smoldering
can see
my pen, my page is on fire!

Soon not even my shell is left
    only ash
from which I will rise again
to begin anew experiencing
inhaling, ingesting, roiling, sifting
until I become fire
    am consumed again
         tomorrow.

© 2010 Shari Lynne Smothers

This poem is for the napowrimo prompt #17, something elemental Visit the post to see the details of this prompt.