Fire
I.
Flame was the likeness of our genesis,
Spreading wild through nooks and crevices.
And there was light. There was warmth.
There was life dancing in its arms.
The beginning of the world, so benign and dire,
Defined by one word: Fire.
II.
And then came us: Children of Flame,
Beings of hope and light the same.
With stories shared around sparkling embers,
Smoke atwist despite decembers.
We were A L I V E. That is apparent.
If souls of laughs and tears could warrant.
If the buzzing speech of trees be loud.
The ambience itself avowed.
We were the notes of harmony,
And rests of balanced melody.
Where root, and rock, and heart are sown,
Is paradise ethereal grown.
III.
And then, we were no longer.
We were split to ‘Man’ and ‘Other’.
Covenant had torn asunder
By mock divinity surmised; a blunder.
Yet there were you who stewards remained,
Derided by ‘Enlightened’ man who claimed:
“Nature’s reign was time arcane.
Man who defers is not man by name.”
And so stewards were the race unlistened to, unheard,
Opinions demeaned to the point of absurd.
Still, you were beings of hope and light,
Of passion in rebellious fight.
Discriminated eyes ablaze,
No matter what, your chins were raised;
“We are the children of Flame! No less!”
And so, Man battled, and ‘Other’…
Acquiesced.
IV.
Amidst the blood that watered our soils,
After compromises tried and foiled,
Did the ‘Enlightened’ King declare:
“Enough is enough. Let no one be spared!”
Ice were the hearts of the soldiers deployed.
Merciless like machines, sent to destroy.
Cold like their leader, the king of torn oaths.
Thus, paradise crumbled for Man and Other both.
Once we were reduced to flickering sparks,
Ships in the clouds began to embark.
Prepared to drop like rain, those bombs of the sky,
That root, and rock, and heart—All! Should die.
Ready.
The deplorable word. The concluding blow.
Aim.
Desolation, the nooks and crevices shall know.
V.
The loss of light and warmth, to greed and desire,
All dawned by one word…
The King smirked: “Fire.”