A New Beginning

White coals burning at the heart of the fire

The utmost source of warmth and friendship

Comfort gleaming brightly in this cold unfriendly world

The brightest light of all

Lit with laughter and understanding

Warmed from within by compassion and love

Now lie bleeding on the ground crushed beneath the stamping foot

What smoke is left curls into the sky

And is gone with a wisp of wind

The coals once hot to the touch have cooled

The flames once a beacon of love have faded

The warmth of the fire is gone, replaced

By a cold and eminent chill

That reeks of selfishness

The last trailing remains of smoke

Of a friendship that is gone

Disappear in the blink of an eye

Never to be restored

The horizon is still

The wimpy smoke gone without a trace

The ashes quiet by the hearth bereft of warmth

Are still

The world is closing in

Betrayal, anger, loneliness

Unhappiness now filters in

The darkness that fills the mind and heart

Is all consuming

But despair not! For here there blows the tiniest breeze

To spark the nest of twigs nearby with a touch of the old flame

Of kindness

And fire grows anew

Brighter than ere the old did burn

Now lights the damp and gloomy clearing

And floodsthe heart with love and light

The laughter returns, compassion restored

Cruel words and deeds dying away

With the old coals, now black from exposure

And overuse

Smoking in the grass

Unheeded, unneeded, and untended

For they cannot be salvaged

And it is unwise to try

But see how bright this fire burns!

How warm and genuine the flames

That tickle the emotions

And ere you can mourn the loss of the old

New coals burn white hot in the midst of flame

New flames stretch upward toward the sky

A new fire

A new friendship

A new start

The world begins afresh