Featured in the 2014 Fall Issue of Rambunctious
Phoenix Colin Howe, '16 The ashen ground still liberated puffs Of black smoke, wisping, towards an empty heaven Their essence filled the air like coils of a snake Slowly wrapping around its prey, gently pulling Away the light from its eyes Charred relics of a forest stood upon the rolling hills They glowed with an exhausted intensity Like macabre Christmas trees, complete with Speckles of white as the sky fell softly Drowning the ground in its loving embrace It was perfectly silent For there was nothing left to be disturbed Lonely licks of flame occasionally cracked sending echoes over the nothingness They went around the world and came back home A solitary bird soared above the madness What had once been cotton balls, was now a seething mass of smoldering coal Bubbling with the despair of souls Burning with the sorrows of life The bird was scared and alone For it was drunk off of the terror below Its wings pitiful bellows to the fires For he had watched the world burn And he didn’t half mind