The Extinguisher

Sawdust and leaves

Lay untouched in their abode

The drought never seems to cease

Leaving all life

Half-evaporated of life itself.

Disrupting the languid nature

An unexpected spontaneity

Amber sparks flicker about

A new life has begun,

Giving rise to smoke

Giving birth to carbon

As it crackles on passionately

Warming the carbon yet more

As if to lay

A cradle

With mittens and blankets--

A security for the newborn

That would have lasted

an eternity

But alas,

As age rises; as carbon ascents

As a young swallow leaves its nest

Embracing greater depths of the skies

With its newly formed wings.

Gone and beyond

In a foreign sky

Venturing

Into uncharted quarters

Where that protection

Slowly fades

Away from

Touch.

The climb up

Treacherous and torturous

The heart

Hardening and freezing

With unfeeling altitude

And as the currents

Nudge carbon back and forth

Back and forth.

It dares not venture any further

It shan't be increase the distance

Between itself

And its creator.

Till the whispering wind

Wanders about...

That devil.

In exchange,

That friendly protection

The red shiny cover

It had recently procured.

To cut all ties

That hold it.

To allow it to fly freely

Like severing

The string of a kite

Fire welcomes it home

That similar presence

As its silhouette wraps about in an embrace

Only to receive

A different air.

"Come over here, .... "

"Extinguisher." That reaffirming

Of its change of name

The altering of an identity.

Next a lethal spray

Cutting off all history

Of reason

Of its existence

No longer crackling

Nor passionate

The loitering mist,

A hint of a sigh.

Not disappointed

But acknowledgement

That the inevitable had come

The smoke fizzes

In laughter

"Its child still kept the middle name"

And in sheer contentment

Is brought away into darkness

It goes on

Like a severed kite

Directionless;

Subjected to the winds

Fancies.

To where one brings

That bright red

Canister

Exhausting every molecule

Of breath.