Feather and Flame [August 2009]

Try to grasp a flame:
it smothers, gutters,
even as it burns you
in the flash of heat
before it's gone.

I am fire and coals.

Try to jess the wind:
bottled, without movement,
it is but air
devoid of all that made it
wild, feral, beauty -
and you've lost what you loved.

I am wind and feathers.

Put a phoenix in jesses
and we'll both be
miserable, feather-plucked,
bitten, singed.

Let me fly free.

Don't try to own me,
don't try to keep me,
and I'll warm you gladly
as bright embers.