I feed the fire photographs

Two figures resting in the green

You lean toward another path

The scent of earth no longer keen

Paper curls, the moment parts

Memory loosens into dark

Resentments rise in violent bloom

Rage migrates from spark to spark

Fear is the fuel that seals the room

Pain gives the fire its needed dark

Ticket stubs from velvet nights

A balcony of hollow sound

I burn what once rehearsed delight

No echo lifts me from the ground

Joy thinned out, lost its tone

Warmth remains, but joy is gone

A silver wave on fragile glass

A promise barely learned to stay

No cry, no breath was ever cast

Still, something living slipped away

I give the image to the flame

My body keeps the empty frame

Resentments rise in violent bloom

Rage migrates from spark to spark

Fear is the fuel that seals the room

Pain gives the fire its needed dark

No relics left for flame or coal

No names still aching to be said

I offer silence, whole and whole

And let it warm what sorrow shed

The grate lies bare, the night is thin

I choose, still trembling, to begin

Resentments rise in violent bloom

Rage migrates from spark to spark

Fear is the fuel that seals the room

Pain gives the fire its needed dark