The river had brought with it much that day

From driftwood to blood from the ember

Some things were hidden while others were seen

Yet the man somehow could not remember



Having ambled away from the water's banks to return to his tribe and their lights

He soon found a failing of flesh, and of mind they were no longer robust or bright

What he could not have seen was the sickness upstream

Those abandoned remains of the wasted



What he could not have known

Was the blight of the bone

In each ebb and each flow he had tasted



Dawn found him ailing delirium rife

Those he loved feared his illness would wander

With time wearing thin, his young eyes clouded in

As the odour of smoke became stronger



It was then that he heard the sharp crackle of torches

Carried past him by men from his clan

A panic cut through all the life that he knew

It was over before it began



Rope looped his wrists

And held tight to his veins

As beside him

His relatives sagged



And with tears in their eyes

Through confusion and cries

Out towards the wild flames he was dragged



Like billions before him regardless of form

It ended as chance had decided

So briefly contained an inferno's refrain

Having powered and angered and guided



At the heart of the blaze awareness dissolved

Light ascended devoid of desire

From a trail intertwined life and death strewn behind

To the stars it returned from the fire