The Refining Fire

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The Refining Fire

~~***~~~~***~~

I entered this world with an open, bare hand,

A stranger arriving in a transient land.

Yet I grasped at the trophies, the praise, and the gold,

Forgetting I borrowed what I never could hold.

~~***~~

I built up my kingdoms, I argued, I fought,

Chasing brief illusions that the daylight had caught.

But the clock never pauses, my hour will chime,

To strip all my attachments from the hands of time.

~~***~~

Death is no shadow, no thief in my night,

But my mystical guide walking into the light.

The quiet companion who stays by my side,

To show me the ocean beyond this brief tide.

~~***~~

My wealth will divide, and my arguments cease,

As I shed all my armor and step into peace.

My memories will fade like the mist on a stream,

As I, the deep dreamer, awake from the dream.

~~***~~

For life was the forge where my spirit had to go,

To learn from the friction, the sorrow, the blow.

Like iron once plunged in the heat of the pyre,

I am being made sharp by the refining fire.

~~***~~

No longer a prisoner to what must decay,

I rise up transformed, and I wander away-

A beautiful spark from the ashes set free,

Ascending to meet my own eternity.

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