analysis (in the end the flame)

if I
were to analyze
the world

I would begin
with water
running like laughter
over stones
at my feet

I would begin
with air
filling me up
with sky

the taste of a cloud
with every breath
I take

I would begin
with
the earth

brown dirt
I hold in my hands

the smell that will be
green
growing things

the beating of a heart
in the shape
of a garden

I would end
with fire

rising
dancing
writhing
in the joy of life
released

veiled
unveiled
I would analyze
the flame’s dance
across a log

I would end
in flame

~
Poem #503 from a series of poems drawn from the imagination and collected as: a Bachelard reverie.