Smoke

I feel like I lost everything in the fire

Total loss

Utter chaos

Mass destruction

Gone.

It wasn’t a fire lit by

Teenage boys playing with matches,

It was kindling for a little while

The embers burned slowly

Glowing against the cold

Against all odds

We burned together

Because that’s what you do

When you fall in love.

The fire started the day

Your eyes met mine

For the first time

I think we both knew we were doomed

From the start.

But saw the world

Free of fire

In the other’s eyes.

See the thing is;

Fire still burns

when you pour Jim Bean all over it.

The flames burn brighter,

Hotter.

Our love glowed.

It always did

But fire is not beautiful

Fire breeds destruction.

It burns things that once

Meant everything to someone

And it burns until it’s nothing.

The smell of smoke

Stains your clothes for weeks

And no amount of washing cycles

Will allow you to forget

the night you lost everything.

Do not compare your love to fire

Because all that makes a home

In the embers

Is consumed

Do not compare your love

To something as destructive

as a flame.

I’ll remember our love

as the warm summer nights

spent by a bonfire—

you never want the night to end

and once it does,

it’s a memory that grows more

and more distant

but the smell of smoke on your sweater

will never let you forget.