A Flame of Decay

O Fire, thou art a spectral breath
That fans decay to feasts of death
Thy embered kiss on flesh doth creep
In darkened halls where silence weeps

What ghostly hunger dost thou crave
To turn the strong to ashen grave?  
In twisting dance, thy tendrils coil
To rend the bone and flesh to soil

Alas, the frame, in sinewed pride
Is but a pyre where worms reside
A hallowed form, so wrought in vain
Consumed, unmade by thy disdain

Thus flesh returns to dust’s embrace
Where fire leaves naught of earthly grace
An empty throne, where life once burned
To rot, to cinder, all returned

So feed, O Fire, in crimson doom
Thou art the forge, thou art the tomb
Where life and death as one must be
The ghastly flame of entropy