none but the phoenix

none but the phoenix shall ever get in
thin skin splits for no tepid tyranny

I grew these walls and carried them
from out of a city
like a necessary evil, this exile,
every mile a test of lessons learned
icons burned into my living flesh
shall I mesh this time with an illusion

I think not
better still the immolation of one dance
begun and ended in unpretended fire
light that cracks like heated glass
at the touch of the god of ice
a vice to splice into my lineage

palms to the wall
calling the unanswered prayers
to the sky, dying, prying away cold fingers
like the remnant stingers of leopard wasps,
pain without death is a shallow breath
that mocks the clocks' tyranny

I want to see the fire before I die.


William F. DeVault. all rights reserved.