Climbing the fire escape you breathe in smoke.
Beads of sweat fall down your cheek, or are they tears?
Possessions dropping off you, floating down like glitter.
Three stories to go and you change your mind.
Your body ignores you and climbs methodically.
Heat is searing your flesh, your eyes no longer function.
Climbing to get to that fire,
To that place in time
Where everything you once were resides.
But it’s not so.
Branded upon your neck is the icon
That carries you through your days.
Stop climbing and start falling,
Falling down to Earth, to Water, through Air.
Stop yearning for the Fire, you’ve had enough of that.
Dreams will carry you through as they always have.
The world of magic and love and strength and merriment,
This is the real world, the world you’ve created in your mind.
This is where you should be, not yearning for fire.
Stop climbing where you will surely be burned.
Start swimming in the lotus pond,
Gazing at the Moon,
Living,
Loving,
Dreaming.
