Each Time

So a phoenix lives a thousand lives;

Each time, does she raise herself?

Each time, she bursts into flames,

When she’s worn one life down,

Breaks her wings and suffers death.

Is it in the stillness and the grey,

And the collapsed sigh of a life too much to keep,

That she blinks a new day forward to exist?

Small, pink, weak, blind.

Does this little one cry?

For a mother,

For a meal,

For warmth,

For warmth,

For warmth,

And in that absence, how long does she stay,

Waiting for someone to raise her, to show her

How to soar again?

She feels the wind hum within her hollow bones,

And it rings like a memory beating against chimes.

She once was mighty,

How life could bring her down to this…

Shaking thing.

Does she cry until she can’t,

Her throat cut too coarse,

Her eyes soaked too red?

Does she cry until she sees,

That no one’s there and no one will be?

Does she cry until she jumps?

‘Cause that's the only way she’s getting anywhere.

A phoenix lives a thousand lives

She falls.

A phoenix lives a thousand lives

She doesn’t brace,

The memory rings.

A phoenix lives a thousand lives

She soars in every one,

A phoenix lives a thousand lives

She will collapse

Again some time

But each time

A phoenix lives 

She will raise herself to live again.