Warmth
My nights have been so cold for so long.
Not just literally
I haven't been feeling so brotherly in a long time.
The distance, the bitter cold
It's something I've grown accustomed to
For better or worse
Tonight, I feel something faintly familiar
Though it's a largely foreign sensation
I feel... warmth
It's unbearable at first
It's suffocating, and I can't seem to get cool enough
So I try to distance myself until suddenly
I find myself in the cold again.
Ah yes... the intense, unflinching, unrelenting cold
I should be comfortable again, right?
But now... I find myself yearning for the warmth's presence.
I spent all this time trying to get away
When I'm finally free from the warmth, I'm not happy
Why? Why couldn't I learn to appreciate the warmth?
Things will be different now, right?
No
Several times over, I've tried to sneak a tiny ember
But I keep finding calderas that burn out if I try to sneak a single ember
The infernos of passion, the fires of friendship
The calderas of trust
They all burn me when I wander too close
Yet now, I can't live without their presence
The frigid tundras I've resided in for so long
They've kept me warm too if I bury myself deep in the snow
But now I want to wander in the open
And not succumb to frostbite or hypothermia
The problem is that the alternative isn't much better
If I stay in the tundra, I inevitably freeze to death
If I stay by the caldera, I inevitably burn to death
Finding a balance seems impossible
Solitude isn't the answer, but neither is companionship
I'm tempted to give up hope, but there's a silver lining
A hand reaches out to me in the cold darkness
A warm hand, but not burning
A hand that's cool, but not frigid
I reach out to grab it and they lift me up
Suddenly, I'm overcome by light
This shining radiance is comforting as it overtakes me
When it's no longer blinding, I find myself shocked by what I found
I'm no longer stuck drifting between tundra and caldera
I'm in a peaceful meadow surrounded by flowers and grassland
The warmth of the sun and the cold of the moon are gentle
The life around me isn't burning or freezing to death
There's nothing for me to bury myself under
Nor is there anything here that would raze my flesh
Instead, I'm free to wander as I please.
Eventually, I find a settlement on the horizon
Its people are jovial, their faces kind
There's a deep-seated fear of mine that these steppes
Will morph into another tundra or another caldera
But for now, I'm at peace as I finally have a place to call home