Tale of the Phoenix

Tale of the Phoenix
A story poem based on a picture of a phoenix
By Ronald Simpson

This is bad
The spores from the neighboring forest are killing our people slowly with the lethal Kamizake poison
What can we do?
It is against our way of life to burn something as sacred as the Redwood forest!
but we cannot sit idly by as our children slowly perish
secretly fading in the night where they lay their heads
we must do something
before we are next
and death continues its game of genocide
And so the elder calls each of the men to his temple
and weaves us a tale of a mythical red bird that may be able to save us
a savior that owns the skies
a divine creature that doesn’t cope with human nature
this feathered creature called a phoenix can incinerate the forest
ending the trekking spores from reaching our village
thus ending the life of the forest
with one vigorous shrieking flamethrower
it seems like a way to solve all of our problems but it’s not
do we destroy a forest or let it claim hundreds of innocent lives?
then all of the men hear a tumultuous explosion outside followed by distant cries
It is our rivals to the west
their kingdom is burning in the night eliminating all of the darkness
the flames are high as we stare cluelessly
The enraged inferno continued for hours until morning when the fire finally gave out
melting at the grace of the sun
Then I turn around one last time to look at the fallen empire
and see the phoenix soaring towards the sun
extenuating a streak of crimson
and drifting endlessly in the sky.