slow burn

In a dying fire,
There are two ways to remember someone:
In the smoke
And in the embers

This place, marked with feelings
As conclusive as footprints
You press gently into me
Again and again
I cannot reconcile with it,
That seasonal purgatory
Of wondering when to fold
Against a relic

The rush of water
At every imaginable distance
Your face,
A hazy inferno