Counted the space between your longest breaths
the flame would eventually consume.

Played the role of spectator to death
sitting in its transient room.

Fell powerless with the torch re-lit,
the weight of it, a fiery hurt

but waited for inevitable ash to sit
then approached with a heart full of dirt.

A lesson laid out in division physics
pure revelation pounded into earth;

the best way to stop a phoenix,
bury it before its birth.