Shifts

 

a soft light against my searing skin,

like the moon to a burnt horizon,

it is the way flames flicker

before they are swallowed whole.

hidden

beneath the deep belly of the ocean,

in the darkest caverns of salt and sorrow,

fighting the pull

watching silently,

as the tides shift,

adjusting to the friction,

learning the contours of a world

that no longer wants it to burn.

should the volcano erupt,

shatter the silence with its roar?

should the molten fury of regret

spill into the world,

consuming everything it touches?

or should it remain hidden

the heat trapped beneath the waves,

the pressure building

in places no one can see?

what’s more tragic

the flames that char everything they adore

or the trembling in the heart,

waiting for the touch that might ignite?

it fears the touch of calm,

the quiet that asks it to be still.

for to be still is to fade,

to surrender its blazing heart

to the ocean’s depths.

so they wait as all things do

caught between what is and what could be

and the silence that stretches

into eternity.