Atrometheus

The moment before fire remembers its name.

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I see you now…  
not clearly at first.  
More like through heat.  
Through the distortion  
that comes before fire.  
My love.  
The word still works  
but I don’t trust it  
the way I used to.

There has always been a space in me  
shaped like you.  
Not a guarantee.  
A tear.  
A place anything could enter  
and pretend.

We wandered…  
beyond ourselves, they’d say.  
Growth.  
Distance wearing a good coat.  
Some things were lost  
because we let them be.

I see you now  
and I don’t know  
if coming back  
is return  
or renew.

I carry what dropped.  
Radiance for the eyes, maybe.  
Heat for the body.  
Also the risk  
of burning the wrong thing.

That look…  
the terrible wonder…  
I want it again.  
I’m afraid of it again.

Atlas, maybe.  
Or just someone  
standing under weight  
he learned to call strength.

Prometheus taught fire  
but not restraint.

Let me lift you…  
or let me believe  
I still can.  
Stand with me high enough  
to see what distance hid,  
if height doesn’t make us dizzy,  
if looking down  
doesn’t remind us  
why we stepped back.

I need to love you…  
not safely.  
Not as shelter.  
More like weather.

I learned to burn  
alone.  
A universe of one  
doesn’t forgive error.

Two…  
Imagine  
the incandescence.


-UpsilonA

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