Ash Bugs

Rising from the embers of Hades, from fire of wood

These grey bugs have seen hell, phoenixed out of the dust

Of whatever plant beast it was in a before life

Long burnt after,

The wispy bugs escape

To dance upward, toward the air, trying to float higher

Away from their past, out of the burning abyss below

Trying to find a life above the pit

They cling for air, climbing delicately toward higher breezes

They are so fragile

So desperate to grasp a draft of cool, sunny day

They dance with hope

But in just a few seconds, their escape plan is thwarted back down

Caught instead by the gravitational inevitability

But they're away, some of them, they left the demon's circle

To find a new resting place

Upon some soft, warm earth

Grounded back to their ancestors

Where they will be a morsel for their young to proceed

Their children will grow and burn, too

Should they be so lucky to not rot