Emberwork

You were never meant to escape the fire...

Photo by Bernd 📷 Dittrich on Unsplash

Emberwork

when morning
		loosens the dark
			with her careful impatience
	and you wake
		from that dream

notice

something improbable  
     	            still burns
     not quite hope
	           but a quieter urgency
		         flickering beneath
               your skin

the horizon
	     gently contradicts
the night	     

and your burnt hands 
trembling 
remember
		what they carried
			without witness
hold them
     in a brief forgiveness  

there are small fires in you
oddly certain
       not quite finished

do not rush
		to understand them

some truths arrive
		out of sequence
and remain

you were never meant
		to escape the fire

only

to carry  
      its dancing unrest  
           without disappearing  
		into it

walk forward

with your clarity  
      your defiance  
	clutched tightly to your breast

the light in you—

fragile  
      but exact—  

waits for nothing
except your willingness  
 to keep it

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You can read more of Sean’s poetry on Arise !



Check it out here:

And discover his cowboy poetry on Bite the Bullet, here:

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Sean Downing, poet, musician, teaches high school English and Theater Arts in Pagosa Springs, Colorado. He can often be found in his woodshop, coaxing music from odd scraps of junk, or haunting the trout streams around southwest Colorado. If you see him, don’t tell anyone: they’re probably looking to get an honest day’s work out of him.

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