By Firelight

I feel the leaves crackle beneath my feet as I look up and find you

haloed in fire light. Your effervescent glow in the raging bonfire

fills me with a heat not known by mere flickering flame.

The light catches your hair as the soft tendrils dance

in the light breeze of the chilled evening.

The sun has set behind me, the last vestiges of day

have finally given up its steely grasp on the expectant revellers.

They mill about the firelight like moths drawn to its warm embrace.

I stand clear in the newly formed shadow watching you dance

around the crowd capturing all those you look upon

and wonder when it was that you first seized my heart and clamped

it in your fist. A tight embrace I would never relinquish.

Darkness takes the party as the smell of burning permeates the air,

the firelight and you are the only barriers to the cold night that

seeps in around our small gathering. Groups huddle protectively

both anxious and enthralled by evening’s soft kiss on their cheek

the tender stroke of its cold fingers down their necks

and along fragile arms folded across chests.

A shiver passes through your body though you do not flinch,

smiling into the encroaching darkness in anticipation

of further delights offered only in dark hours.

The sky explodes into life illuminating the grounds once more,

touching all the faces with hues of green and red.

You see my face illuminated in man-made stars destined to burn out in a heartbeat.

Your eyes penetrate my being and send the cacophony of many fireworks

skittering to the back of my mind. Our breath holds us,

sentinels watching the world catch light and burn around us.

Reflected in your eyes I see myself rooted as the light of the world

rains down on me and for a moment it is beautiful.

Then I fade again to nothing the stars gone out, too fierce to linger.

The leaves crackle beneath my feet as I turn back to the darkness.