Burn Victim

What happened? I bolt awake, the heat of the fire Still burning in my brain. Oh, it was just a dream. Or was it? I look at my skin, Realize it’s black and bloody all at once Cracked, peeling. I sniff, The whisper of smoke still in my nose, My hair. A tear rolls down my pitted cheek As I remember, like I always do, After I wake up. Reliving that night. The last thing I remember, I was Home, entwined in your arms (your fingers were entwined, too, in the hair I’m stroking now). The heat between our bodies So strong, that I pushed you away; I regret it now. (I just wanted a little space.) Because the heat then became suffocating, consuming, As you rolled over and said this wasn’t the same anymore. I couldn’t breathe. Soon, I was sweating, 100 degrees and climbing, as you got up and packed your things then left the room. The slam of the front door Was the catalyst. My heart was the match, And I the fuel.... I exploded from the inside out- The flame ripped me open, My skin started to blacken and smoulder. Stop drop and roll? They never taught us what to do In a human inferno. In desperation, I laid there on the bed You and I shared My tears nothing but puffs of smoke as they fell uselessly upon my skin. The tears I’m crying now In the hospital bed Remembering Are no more productive... But my dear friend sitting next to me Who pulled me out of the flames Is there to dry them And to console me Telling me I still look beautiful the wounds will heal And that you aren’t worth them anyway. I now know what I have to do once I can leave this place. Months later, My burns have closed, now only scars remain. I walk up the street to the house you and I once shared, Now only a pile of rubble. Picking my way through the charred remains of our bedroom, A curtain scrap there, a chunk of headboard there, A stray blackened sock, I stop, and kneel down in the ashes. I begin to sift through the ashes, the memories, with my finger, Both erasing the past, And bringing it to life all at once, Until I have found it. A blade of grass. One. Standing tall, strong, And unapologetically green. In the middle of the ashes, With the ruins of our life together all around me, I delicately clean the area around the blade of grass with my finger, and I smile.