The Bonfire

Alone at twilight

Far away from city lights

Not as much as to fight darkness but solitude

I kindled a bonfire

I sat on a fallen trunk and felt its warmth

Like a cat sitting by the fire so the flames purred

Down there by the beach

Swash and backwash, and swash and backwash

Rocking the Earth, the waves, so gently

My heart throbbed, and my soul breathed

Flames crackled, engulfing the pine needles

The sparks swirled up, crusading the glum

And I wondered if so my life had gone

Dry leaves flaring up, as such, I had done

There was no wind, no moon, no stars

The perfect moment to ponder my life upon

What I did, what I do, what I will do

Yet life does not inflect like a verb

Life is but a straight line with hidden angles

Memories hide so well in those corners

Reminiscence of things, everything, one thing

And I realized it was all about her

She, once my love, now my wrath, she

I tossed my memories into the flames

The embers enlivened, and the blaze whooshed

The bonfire crepitated wildly

I heard my heart crying

And again, she became ashes

As she had been for a long, long time

Ashes I kept in my heart like in an urn

Alas! Ashes burn worst than fire burn

So, the wheezing of my memories ablaze

Startled me

Their endurance, their unreasonable persistence

Moved me

And I cried, and my tears dropped

And it was as if a magical dew fell

On the flames, incandescent

Droplets of myself, once a wild adolescent

Dewdrops of the adulthood I dreamed

The feelings I had, the thoughts, the hopes I had

And again, the embers flourished, and the fire whooshed

And all that once I wished to become the flames wolfed

Already at dawn, my memories surrendered

And became stars

While the bonfire unconcerned of my fears

Purred, satisfied, unmoved by my tears.