Ode to the Phoenix

People often find a way to make you feel sick about yourself,

Sick like the foul taste of ash and smoke hitting the roof of your mouth

And the smell of brimstone assaulting your nose with poison.

People have the power to do that.

Why do we let them?

We let their words consume us like flames lapping at forests,

The aroma of crackling logs and sizzling tree sap the only thing they allow us to smell.

But as much as it hurts,

You have to let yourself get lost in the fire,

Let yourself be scorched by their words so you can learn to brush them off

As embers that weren’t strong enough to catch fire.

Let the warmth surround you and surrender yourself to the inferno,

Let their sharp tongues and hot breathe cut down to your bones until

Nothing is left… but your misery can still be rekindled into hope.

Do not despair that you are shrouded by darkness black as the demons that haunt you,

Because light shines the brightest in blackness,

A blinding sun next to the dim light of those who made you feel like you were nothing,

With their own hearts tossed in the cold coal bed of a dying fire and no amount of

Stoking could ever revive what is already dead inside.

But you are alive and still tending to the fire,

Fueling it with your endless self-worth.

So gather yourself from the ashes,

Release the passion you have locked inside it’s birdcage that you kept from everyone else,

Feel it soar into the sky with your hopes and dreams.

Let your ambition run red hot through your veins and pursue what you have always wanted to do,

Shed your skin and grow it back tougher than steel armor forged by master smiths,

Replace everything old and worn away by something new so that eventually you will have a body that their words have never touched, have never had the satisfaction of scarring.

You can create a new you that can withstand anything and accomplish everything.

Put time and effort into growing a pair of wings you can be proud of,

Materialize them out of the rising dawn and don’t be afraid to fall with dusk,

Become a being of legend and myth like a bird with the power of rebirth.

Forgive yourself as a phoenix rising anew from the ashes of their own past mistakes.

The best thing about being a phoenix is their ability to conquer death despite all odds,

Because once you hit the bottom there is no way to fly but upwards.