Portraits in Letter

Tag: fire

  • Song-writing by the fire

    Remember the last winter night we spent by the fire…

    This time was different from the times before

    This time we’d each become comfortable with our native languages

    Yours was music, mine was poetry

    Finally we were compatible

    Remember how we exchanged a secret glance

    When a third person asked what we loved about writing? 

    How did we respond to that again?

    You said…

    “It’s the only thing that engulfs me without having anything to do with love

    Just something I have to do if I want to breathe deeply

    And if I don’t do it…well then I can’t breathe.”

    I said…

    “I was never good at drawing even though I always wanted to

    But also the things I need to draw, I don’t know their shapes

    Like, what is the shape of passion when it burns love down to ashes

    This is the only way I know how to draw that.”

    You said…

    “Sometimes I search for words in all the languages I know

    And they don’t come to me except as a song.”

    I said…

    “My heart is a hoarder

    This is how I declutter it, this is how I restore order.”

    When he left the fireplace and we were alone again

    I gave you the lyrics and you wrote the melody

    Finally we were compatible.

  • Fire, wind and water

    Fire!

    I remember how the fire started

    Slowly awakening every sense in its way

    Lighting up a whole city

    Have you ever seen a city rage before?

    The heat, the heat, there was nothing like it.

    Wind!

    But nature is a tough thing to bear

    Perfect harmony can bring perfect chaos

    I remember the force of the wind that came

    Spreading the fire beyond the walls of the city

    Put it out! Put it out! Logic kept crying

    I don’t know why, but I wanted it to burn

    I feared the darkness and cold more than the heat and the light. 

    Water!

    The rain wouldn’t have it and it started to pour

    I’ll never forget how quickly it went cold

    Blackness and ashes on a smokey horizon

    In that cold darkness, I found the city gate

    I took one more look at the bareness before me

    Then turned my back and walked away

    Even though I had lost a whole city

    I’d always choose to fly away and inherit the sky.