It appears your pantaloons are ablaze again
I wish I knew what purpose it serves for you
For perhaps then I wouldn’t be so offended
So taken aback at every turn

I question my investment 
The time it takes for the words to spill from your lips
To the time they strike my ear
I must be waiting for insight
Insight, which, sadly never comes

I am tired. 
Made to feel Small and Insignificant 
Unsteady and Fearful
Surrounded by all the little fires you light around me

Insidious and encroaching 
In their multitudes, an inferno
Battle-weary, 
I can no longer invest

I’m sitting on a powder keg, and you’ve got a match
Though you say it’s but a feather
I can see the flame
Its malice flickers in the pools of your eyes
And twists your tongue

I am no threat, I assure you
You are safe in my arms
I hold my hands before me, empty of pretense and violence
Full of compassion and forgiveness

A smile,
Your favourite weapon
Then – a whispered fable – ‘I love you’
And once more, remorselessly, 
We are consumed in flames

Having learned at the foot of the master,
Soul made unassailable over time and Self shielded deep within
Flames reflect back
And you find you are no longer the only one with a forked tongue