What Would I Burn Away?

I would be set free from an old memory,
a place, a home, land, finally rising with ash
turning into clouds, atmosphere, and then, fall as rain.

Witnessing the ashen, burned landscape
flattened by fire, I wasn’t sure how I would react.
Would tears flow, a resignation, falling into…nothing?
What would I feel after years of this land not being mine?

It changed hands to someone new when the relationship
had also turned to ash, allowing the phoenix to rise in both of us.
The great letting go to begin again,
assembling all the pieces of a new life.

That place had held a piece of my body, hostage.
The building of the house had kept a piece of my body
attached, holding on, to a possibility of returning.

and how that piece in the body,
had held back a flow through to another way,
as water flows and builds and builds until a passage appears,
breaks free and follows a new path, river or stream.

Now, looking at the ash, I let go and feel nothing,
nothing left attached, a deep breath lets it all go.
I feel relieved, a burden lifted. A raven somewhere,
has lifted its wings, seen new territory and flies.

Without asking, this was burned away.
This letting go opened a gate to remembering
what I really want, to explore a larger landscape
a new way, a new day to find my place again.

— Brian R. Martens

https://www.brianrmartens.com/