Never Again?

Written January 16, 2010

White branches
brown branches
black branches
burnt lifeless.

Tangled
mangled
strangled
until the arms
could be
only evidence
of
what used to breathe.

Where are your lungs
that gasped
over the tears?

Has that old flame
smothered you
so that you
are only a shell
of your former self?

Have your arms
become stiff
to the world
around you,
like the blaze
had struck
the forest?

Never
to l(i, o)ve
again?