I tripped over her memory yesterday.
I’d tucked it away beside the fireplace
where I used to sit as a child,
and there, while the adults poured tea and conversation flowed,
I would stare into the fiery abyss,
and watch the flames turn black rock, that had been a million years in the making,
into dust in no time at all.
Fire I realised from that early age was the ultimate alchemist,
unapologetically devouring with no emotion or concern
yet changing what it destroyed into warmth, light and magic,
creating a space where people wanted to gather,
catch up and honour the euphoria of firelight and family.
Still that fire glows within my memory
setting a spark to my thoughts and my soul.
It enables me to remember her;
She, the fire maker,
who had kept the flames burning through many winters
keeping her family warm
and setting a spark flickering in a child’s heart that would last a lifetime.
I tripped over her memory yesterday
and it made me smile.
Lathen Griffiths