The Spirits of a Place
Are elemental
Get under your skin
Over time
Just listen
Years of Water and Stone
Conditioned me
To wait for change
Remembering
The patient power of glaciers
Left me
Frustrated with
Shallow rocks from quarry
No history or memory
To hold me
No fresh running stream
To quench this thirst
Bogs and drainage ditches
Would have to suffice
Stagnating
Suburban landscape
Pretend wilderness
Missing elements
I never found the ground
I needed
Until just yesterday
It finally hit me
Like wind
Suddenly
Burning
My face
Some places
Are desert or mountain
Some places
Water and stone
But this…
This is
Wind and Fire
Still stubborn with my
Fret and longing
For the touch of
Some other Lover
It took the smell of smoke
And charred remains
For me to finally hear You
Wind and Fire
So different from
Water wearing away time
Stones as witness
Slow and tender
Your passion is
Quick, wild, and uncompromising
Rising up
Hot and dangerous
Wind and Fire
Cut right through me
Build an altar
Stir these embers
Ashes sting from
Freshly burnt offerings
I am bracing for your touch
Wind and Fire
Fill me up
© 2016 Chris Paige. All rights reserved.
To Be OtherWise 