Transcending Flames

Molting fingers

Dead rubs roughly against my calloused palms

Sweating

My hands dry before my eyes do

Collapsing into ember as neon reds and orange traverse crumbling bark

The wooden remains reflect my aiming heart

Ashes are all I've known and they smother me

Burning my becoming

Touching brilliantly all I've ever feared

The fire consumes me within the logs

Reminding me of all the deaths that have gotten me here.

Its light becomes my mirror as I pray for the Holy while I'm still undead

If only humanity had left me in apathy's recess.

Yet still, as they fell off my torso, my legs wobbled, shambling across the floor.

My hands still crave human warmth; perhaps it's this desire that keeps me warm.

My skeleton became a shield from the beast of the forest

Snakes cannot poison bones, and jaguars will not hunt what they cannot eat.

Wolves would lose pack members trying to rip bones off of me

So I became a threat to the hunters and

Defiled my soul with absolution

Its this flame that shows me life in decay

Reminding me, although my muscles have worn to shreds, and mostly bones are left

These hands with dry skin flacking off show me the warmth that waits upon my death

Showing me a warmth beyond the forest tracks

Showing me warmth that won't fade to ash

Showing me warmth that won't turn its back

Until then

I grasp onto these flames

turning dry hands

to gray chains