This Path I'm On (poem)

The Flames roar and shake the unburdened air,

strung across the blazing path beneath my feet.

It winds over and through the vale of death,

down raging rivers and twists through thorny wilds.

It is a path of ever-burning embers

whose flames scorch and ignite me.

At any moment, I could burn up completely,

to become grey ash so easily scattered by the wind.

Occasionally others will cross my path

asking me why I do not take a straighter road,

seeing my burning with horror and fear,

asking why I do not leave behind the Flames.

But I have tread on other paths before,

for quite some time before finding the Flames.

They appeared to be easier, paved, safe,

but along them I was never home, never me.

I was nothing but a cardboard cut out,

so when I found the Flames I was terrified.

But the moment I touched them, I ignited,

burned to cinders, and rose again a phoenix.

For my place is in the light of the burning sun,

within the Flames that are my beginning and my end,

and for all the difficulties and pains it brings,

I have the courage to bear it all, as a child of fire.

-Zero