Trial by Fire
This is a different version
of the phoenix we once knew.
You, with your angel wings
shining gold in flames of my temple,
time and time again, returning--
both of us learning.
You hold my feet to the fire,
then help to heal the burning.
You’re willing to brave the heat,
the black, the flame
calling my name
knowing there will be beauty for ashes
but all the same
there will be ashes too,
and soot
and smoke.
And while you walk the hot coals,
Barefoot,
you invoke the powers of Heaven.
And find me as a little child,
lost, and wild, and still ablaze.
And call me by a new, and sacred name.
All I see through the haze
Is that you came.
- s.b. Westenskow March 9, 2017
