I tripped over her memory yesterday.

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