Rational & Cautious

i'm fighting laughter:
you're in the middle of a forest fire
with a dipperfull of well-water
you gathered at the world's end -

but this is the the world's beginning
and
it's burning with the sunrise and flames from where my eyes
met your eyes.

the wise man who sent you out with that tiny silver cup
who turned you out and sent you off with a high quest and glory-thirst;
the old, scarred knight whose tales of brave adventure spurred your feet
through lone and undiscovered countries-
don't you think he too, long and long ago, reached his journey quest,
dipped up the stars
from that fabled & unchartable deep
and drew that cup of striving to his lips
to down a draught unparalleled...

don't you see, before that liquid mystery kissed his tongue
a billow of smoke
from an olive grove afire
walled him in, distracting and the seeker in him paused,
just long enough to hear the cry
of a desperate, wide-eyed dryad in distress...

look closer: why is your ladle's handle all scorched and charred?
you are not the first foolish son
to sail past the sirens
to the uttermost of reason and enter the forest beyond.
nor are you the first wise man to find
that love,
love,
love is burning in unquenchable light around you.

Come on, laugh with me-
your journey was not vain!
Come, let's watch the colors of the cinders dance
and marvel at their brief and brilliant rain!