Phoenix

 

You stare, flustered by

the candy apple sky

 

that licks at the day

with overbright flames 

and leaps in tongues 

too big 

for all that you

know

 

until now

as you stand, clear eyed

in the smoke

feeling the old heat, a tight fit

on cramped wings

 

and fan it to glow 

even hotter

burning the sky, turning 

clouds to vapor

boiling in swells rolled up

onto this shore

 

where ashen

but ready

 

you rise 

to meet it.