My Crucible

By Daniel Salois

Broken Shattered Useless and Cold

All of my sorrow onto which I hold

So little joy for my soul to behold

Melt me down and break my soul

The growth the pain is but one toll

Forge me in fire and make me whole

Make a red hot glob of swirling steel

Then take away the pain I feel

Let me stir till I become real

I sit and I stew and I wonder why

The world in its beauty makes me cry

So much to see before I die

The heat of the moment, the height of the pain

What on earth could there be to gain

To not leave you behind I must abstain

Melting down in this graphite pot

A dangerous reality a difficult spot

My two minds mixing, mixing while they’re hot

I’m scooped up when I can take no more

A new me lies in store

When into the cast do you pour

A brand new shape, a brand new me

No longer a broken catastrophe

And all the new things I can be

A meaning has found me as I sit and cool

Now I realize I was the fool

That it wasn’t just fate being cruel

Life is unfair, life is unjust

It could leave you feeling like it’s all a bust

Could leave you with longing, could leave you with lust

As I sit and cool I realize now

With all the sweat upon my brow

Life is funny anyhow

It is not fair, it is not kind

But I surely do not mind

For fate on me has no bind

A day has passed, my new shape tough

What I have will be enough

Though the journey may be rough

In my crucible it occurred to me

All the things that I could be

Only my crucible let me see

In withering heat I’m forged in fire

Ignited like a phoenix, my reborn desire

My sorrow my slag removed and retired

My convictions no longer seducible

And my strengths no longer reducible

I am made stronger within my crucible