By Love's Fire Consumed

Starved
of affection
through seasons
of drought
conditions
were created
conducive
to combustion

Like the touch
of a match
to fields
tinder dry
your love
has ignited
a fire
swift spreading

Unchecked
this flame rages
devastating
all in its path
outpacing
the flight of mammals
an inferno
which holds hostage
my heart

Whipped by winds
of fantasy
this firestorm leaps
rapacious upon a
crest of crowns
the mightiest
of sentinels
pinioned candescent

Voracious hunger
goading
this ravaging beast
devours
all before it
finding fair prey
all entities
flammable

Fiery fangs
strike
with asp raptor
rapidity
acetylene talons
rend
the flesh
of the forest

Phosphoric eyes
greedily covet
virgin topography
to despoil
an alien hydra
tentacles ablaze
she embraces
terrestrial Hades

By Night's
observation
from horizons afar
great gouts
of flame
give birth
in hellish
corona

From murky depths
ascends
this denizen
of darkness
to paint
the Heaven's in
malevolent
carmine aurora

Borne in the gales
of ebony hours
the breath
of the beast
precedes it
in sulfuric
satanic
stench

As the winds
dwindle
the beast
finds sleep
in beds
of embers
the strength
of the creature wanes

Smoking ruins
and swirl of ashe
by barren
Dawn emerge
redwoods
once proud
stand now
charred husks

Tendrils of smoke
from cinders arise
acres of
desolation
terrain once pristine
bounteous no more
laid waste
by conflagration

But lo,
dost vision
deceive?
there yet remains
a solitary pine
a single tree
sheltered
in boulder's lee

I stand alone
to greet the beast
obstructing
convection's pathe
I cannot endure
a battle resumed
depleted by
Love's torrid touch

You are
a criminal
convicted
the arsonist
of hearts
you set
men's souls
aflame

Like a thief
furtive
by night
you steal
their heat
then run
as shadows
flee light