I hate fire.

The heat
touches not only my skin
but my spirit.

Yet it follows me,
burns my back,
scorches my heart,
puts my entirety
into one ball
of yellow and blue.

I swim the coldest waters
but the fire tracks me.

It clings onto my bareness.
even if I clothed
my whole being.
The heat soaks my soul
and sticks to me
like magnet to steel
and there is nothing
i can do now
but embrace the flames…

*****
Found in my old journal.
Written sometime in the year 2000.