Beyond the Ring of Lights

Humans are the oddest animals
in nature. Here's why: fire.
Other animals, spurred by instinct,
the elder sibling of intelligence,
know to flee in fear from the hungry
flames. Not us.

We stare at it, reflect it from eyes
too weak to see at night, play with it,
touch it, know its heat on our melting skin.
We want more and so we create
and feed the little toasty beast
until it outgrows the need for our care.

Of course, we know it is a gift
from a god, come down from heaven.
(Our ancestors neglected to mention
that it came down on a stormy night
and in the form of lightning)
And when it came, how we savored
the crackling beauty of it, the dizzying
heat that burned our worries away.

How eagerly we nursed the first
fluttering ember into a weapon
we could wield, as though we
ourselves were the mighty god,
against all the things
we couldn't conquer:
the dark, the cold, our hunger,

and the other animals
who knew enough to cower
far from our glowing eyes
in the darkness
beyond the ring
of the wild, dancing lights.