Burnt Lips
by Odin Roark

The searing heat
Eruption's inner core
quaking like fissures of
anger
jealousy
hate

Flames rage after fuel
consuming passion's very life force
only to reach a cliff
where sparks end
embers float helplessly
ashen efforts evaporate

Burnt lips
ever recanting
hiding from rebuke
knowing words can
destroy
heal
empower
remain idle

Volte-face festers now
like Leper lesions of the soul
unhealed self-deprecation
once ocean caps seemingly within reach
now remnant tides of roiling waters

Still

Better to have expressed and lost
than to have never expressed at all