Proof of where the fire left its mark on you

The charred markings

Coating each chamber

Limbs and trunk and dirt

Blistered in this blackness

This raging

Consuming every green thing

All growth that made this forest thick with safety

Now twigs and smoke and ash

Even the rocks and boulders painted thick with soot

Proof of where the fire left its mark on you

Days have rolled on into months rolled into years

Rains have soaked this ground

But the black remains of forest

Remind you of what was,

Of the burning…

Under the soil

ash-fed and hydrated

A little pine cone from a mighty tree

Hatches its green shoot

Pushing through soil

Reaching for sun

Days roll on into months rolled into years

And that tiny pine cone

Only able to open from the heat of a flame

Has grown tall and strong

Proof of where the fire left its mark on you