my friend cried over her ex
today.
she texted him
for the first time in weeks
and told him that she missed him.
i scowled and looked away
because
i wanted to text my ex too,
but for different reasons.
i wanted to remind him
of how he set my soul on fire,
pinched the cinders
between his fingers,
and wiped it off of his shirt.
later, when i rose from the ashes
of who i was,
i wanted to remind him
that he is the cause
of his own destruction.
his ill-treatment chipped away
at my soft edges like a chisel,
until nothing was left but that hard,
fiery core.
he burned his hand
as he was chipping
and asked me why i let him
burn.
and those
were his last words.
so yes, both of us
were swallowed by the fire
but only one of us
emerged as a phoenix.