1. Beauty for these Ashes
DoHH – Soul A
May 9th 2024
For these ashes—
The remnants of heartbreak,
The dust of disappointments,
The residue of failures—
I seek healing.
I seek restoration.
This heart, this tender heart,
Is consumed by a darkness,
Sensitive to the light;
It hides in sorrow,
And bleeds in love.
A broken soul, so I’ve been told;
A map tracing to the beginning,
Back to my very first storm,
Scattered and searching,
Joined together by other tiny lost souls.
Maybe just let it all crumble;
What is the point, anyway!
If the light I seek is the foe,
The sorrow I carry is my ally,
And the breaking – the slow, agonizing breaking – is the only life I know?
How much further to the end?
How long should I endure this?
Maybe just let it crumble,
Just let the fire consume the whole of me to a crisp.
Maybe those ashes are the beauty I seek,
The phoenix’s wings to my raising.
Maybe, just maybe, this one time…
Deborah Nyamu,
DoHH,
2025.
