The Burning Life

We are as flames that feed upon the air,

Consuming time as if it were our fare.

Each breath we draw becomes the fuel we spend,

To keep alight until we meet our end.

The body serves as kindling for the mind,

While both together burn through humankind.

And what we call our living is the heat

That rises up before we are complete.

Some blaze with such ferocious appetite,

They devour their own substance in their flight,

While others smolder long through patient years,

And loved ones well their matter and their tears.

Yet every soul must reckon with the law

That what burns bright leaves little left to draw

Upon when coldness comes to claim its due,

And all that fire forgets what fire knew.

We think ourselves the masters of our blaze,

As if we might extend our burning days

Through will alone or wisdom gathered late,

When flame itself determines every fate.

The truth remains that life will have its way

With those who burn and those who only stay

Aglow with careful tending of their spark,

Until the final cooling brings the dark.

So let us burn as generously as we dare,

And meet our ending in the open air,

Where smoke ascends and ash returns to ground,

And silence now is all that can be found.