Ethereal

Campfires seen across the lake

Speaking to each other in fiery debate

Embers popped with every rebuke

Exclamations in every flake

A basket of sound; pop and crackle

Spew and sizzle, even a little

Was enough to singe my flesh

And choke my untempered breath

Into dust I sink, bereft of belief

Against the flames, perhaps underneath

That familiar shriek of knotted beech

Drowned the sound of gnashing teeth

Chomp, chomp, chomp at the bit

The space between fire and pit

I found myself in the romp

Between space and air and heat