Poem: Ascension by Kayla Cook

Phoenix Flames by Kayla Cook

Ascension

By Kayla Cook

Let's run away together, run back in time,

ride the light to some place warm and bright

where there's no more fear or pain.

Create a new world; forget this half-life, living-death.

We'll exsanguinate Time, take back what's ours,

make us younger—me, a child in your arms again.

Yet will we find new life near as precious without the pain?

Did we know then what we know now,

or was it all taken for granted until the end?

Perhaps it would be better to build up from where we stand,

grow from our pain, burn our enemies in our phoenix-flames,

scatter their ashes with each beat of our wings.

Let's finally live, something we haven't done since birth;

kill Death and deal Pain a wound of its own.

Let go of these monsters, rattle these living corpses,

climb out of our graves before any more dirt is thrown on us.

Let our rage shake the death-shroud from us, our love lift us up—

let's rise from our prison cell and fly away.