Lauren Tsai, class of 2027
there lives within each of us a spark
it flickers, dances, flits about
from place to place
dwells only a moment before flying away again.
(fleetingly, like a single lifetime)
there is a matchbox on a shelf
i should reach for it, take one -
lift it, poise it,
spin my ember into motion
make something of untapped potential
(matches breathe life to flames, after all)
but yet i hesitate:
what if? the spark that transpires
may produce a drowning blaze
what if i can’t control it?
what if nothing happens at all?
(incessant murmurs draw me back)
strike and strike futilely
flickering but never igniting
tauntingly living only in imagination
“why,” it seems to say,
“why would you think your little spark
could become a flame?”
(and it speaks true.)
it’s easier to never take the match at all.
never search the soul for the ember
never try to control the flame
never (i must confess) learn how to strike that match
for i never knew how to do it at all.
(never, never, never, never…)
how? why should i try?
why should i learn?
why take a risk?
surely, i can live with my what-ifs
my could-have-beens and it’ll-never-works
there’s enough warmth here to survive.
(...right?)
and yet… and yet.
ignoring it was never an option for me, was it?
why - if i could race along with the tongues that reach
crackling and snapping with frenetic energy
carrying me up thrillingly high -
why waste possibility?
why only survive?
(shivering and dulled, wishing for warmth)
(when i could soar as a phoenix?)
there’s a spark there
i don’t know how to make it a flame
but
i can learn.
learn how to take the match
learn how to strike it just right
learn how to stoke the fire
and learn
how to reach my own potential.
(awakening, at last.)
Hello! I'm Lauren - already a junior, time flies! - and I like to write needlessly vague poems (just like I did when I was a freshman, and when I was in eighth grade, and...) with nice elemental imagery. Naturally, that means my submission for this theme is/are fire-related metaphor(s). Maybe next time I'll write something about water... oh wait, I did that already.