Fire Bird - Gail Onion

[Larry Robinson]

Fire Bird

It is true.
The fire came.
It took what
It could
The way of fires
And left.
I explain this to a Maple Tree
Who has always listened
To me like a mother.
The fire, I said
Has taken my story
And added its own.
It is the suddenness
And quick chop
Of disasters that leave us
Stunned.
The swimmer caught in the 
Undertow.
The monarch butterflies en route
Frozen in a surprise snowstorm.
The refugees flight from the wretchedness
Of a dictator, only to cross
The desert without any water.
In the churning of disaster
Sparks whirl from the petulant
Erratic and a life bows in flames
A town, a country.
But you finally listened as you told your story
Of how you escaped
Arms full of nothing
And now you lay the nothing down.
And given the faith of the ones who escape
Roots tingle from your feet 
Seek the rich darkness 
Grip, dig in, descend deeper,
The breath of yourself, 
Breathing you down, 
While the rising that is also you,
Looks up, ascends, breathes you up,
looks out at
Another horizon hazy but
With a glow
from the eternal light.
As you announce to the sky the dirt the air 
To the unknown survivors 
Not done yet.

	- Gail Onion