girl

 I talk sometimes

to a girl

whose heart is on fire

her fragility terrifies me

that the raging fire

might gobble up her bones

like thin tindersticks

I watch her tears flow

stop, flow again

I marvel how fire and water

live in the same house
together

I wonder for whom she cries

for love

slipping through her fingers

clever trickster that it is

or  her own lost self

a songbird

of parched throat

mourning her lost song

I want so much

to fold her in my arms

kiss her weeping head 

and say

girl, don't chase phantoms

all you seek
hides in you

until you know that

everything is a lie

I know

lost in her burning

she cannot hear me

so I hope and wait

for the fire to die

sweet waters to rain

on hard burnt soil

deep cracks birthing

tender green shoots