Do you burn?

With passion? With anger?

With worry? With despair?

With joy? With expectation?

Do you burn?

Legs running from a future you cannot control?

Feet stepping to a hope that rises with each new sun?

Heart pounding from fear or anticipation?

Do you burn?

But with a fire, reflected from the sky

Refracted from a million voices

Speaking one Word?

Do you burn?

Or has your spark gone out

Blowing wind on a thousand tiny embers

Glowing briefly in the dark?

Do you burn?

Like a parent for a child?

Like a spouse for another?

Like lovers at the first kiss?

Do you burn?

Do you stare into the darkness like at midnight

Waiting for shadows to show another step?

Do you burn?

Hot with fresh fire;

Torch bright in blackness?

Do you burn?

Steady and simmering;

And light a room on a cold night?

Do you burn?

Tinder for God’s life,

Kindling for the Spirit to light?

Do you burn?

Or do you hold the match at arms length?

Afraid to catch fire?

Do you burn?

Not for success or security,

Not for newly minted superiority

Or the seductions of materiality?

Do you burn?

Not like a list,

Each mark of goodness safely checked,

Ensuring your self worth

Do you burn?

For justice? For righteousness?

For transformation and forgiveness?

For love and peace to explode, like fireworks, in the darkness?

Do you burn?

Overcoming, overwhelming,

Consuming, subsuming, remaking, renewing, reinfusing,

Until all is flame, swiftly diffusing.

Do you burn?