aflame

sometimes words fall

from my mouth like ashes
drifting up a chimney:

white, soft, pure, their heat

breathed out of them. but

other times, they singe like

still-warm coals, lightly sizzle
into soul-flesh; the wound 

takes heart-ache to heal. and

there are rare times when

words lick like flames

at your cheeks; scarlet

envelops you deeply

in burns of life-time ache. 

remember please: it takes all 

three to make a fire, for my

soul scorches brightly into

the universe, a reckoning

inferno in need of understanding.