Phoenix
You stare, flustered by
the candy apple sky
that licks at the day
with overbright flames
and leaps in tongues
too big
for all that you
know
until now
as you stand, clear eyed
in the smoke
feeling the old heat, a tight fit
on cramped wings
and fan it to glow
even hotter
burning the sky, turning
clouds to vapor
boiling in swells rolled up
onto this shore
where ashen
but ready
you rise
to meet it.
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