Phoenix

And I open my eyes to the obelisk,
burn in the casket of sunlight,
licked up my side,
wiping my face -
Birds sail,
fly sloppily in their blackness,
smudges upon the sky,
remarkable, marvels.
And beyond measure I link
with the power that was
trapped as if a fledgling within me,
her feather's intensifying with age,
bones extending by force,
stretching
as if longing to take her first flight,
reaching close, closer than close,
just below surface,
ever glowing, ever clawing at the throat
to emerge. And there I allow her exposure,
on that bleak day, on my knees,
to paint a Phoenix upon our world.