Meekness

"Souls get trapped,
from time to time, in
fires" His face characatured by light thrown
across his wrinkled, bark-like skin;
Hands clasped for dramatic effect.
Standing there in the midst of the wood:
a leather scarecrow. "And you know how they are caught?"
we shook our cantaloupe heads vigorously.
His weathered, red-coal eyes smiled with mischief
"They go to roam the earth, before returning
from whence we came, and they are so attracted by the heat,
they are mesmerized, and caught in the white flame.
And when that mystical thing happens, the fire
ROARS" He threw some magical dust into the lava's palm,
And it rose up two stories tall, as tall as the pines,
pillar of flame, pillar of burning memories
White hot, and silent.

And now when you stand by the fire,
I wonder, what was burning?
Was it achievements? Was it pride?
Memories? Hope? I do not really know,
but I want to believe that it was love,
I want to believe that this humble, noiseless, ivory inferno
could only have been caused by something,
that burns in so many, for so short,
and burns in so few, for so long.