Cycle

Scarless youth, unbent
beware those men --
husks who prowl
your thoughts
for what they've lost or never had.

God's fire, once lit
speaks names in raging fits
of white.  Flames lick
the tops of shaved heads
bent in supplication.

Fear is a bracing torrent.
It floods through each
who knows himself
caparisoned in blood.
Annihilating pain.

Extinction is a bone
a girl finds on a beach.
Her father calls her to him
as a cherry-red ember
glows in his breast and then fades.