The largest blaze can start from the smallest spark

The largest blaze can start from the smallest spark, a spark that could so easily have been snuffed out by a sneezing mouse, a spark that could be blown out by the gentle breeze from the wing of a butterfly launching from the stamen of a dahlia.

The spark would have to, in a single moment, catch a lone sheet of paper or a collection of waste items dried in the sun and flammable by nature. The spark would have to seize the opportunity to reach something incendiary and quickly convince that said item to take on a flame. Negotiation time would be… limited.

(Fast) I sometimes wonder if the lint in my belly button might combust into flames. 

The spark becomes flame… (fast) and even then the flame is vulnerable. Like a starving chick it needs feeding and it needs it fast. The flame stretches the reach of the spark and grows a little more resilient under the right conditions. The flame laps more gently and more persistently at possible colluding objects and materials. The flame licks more seduc.tively and can be irresisssstible. The flame grows hypnotically, it’s prey is weakened. The flame… excites. 

The flame becomes fire. A fire. The fire can still be fragile. Can still be subject to burn out but with careful persuasion the fire can become all encompassing. The fire can reach and react. The fire can sense it’s strength and when the heat rises the fire draws breathe and spreads.

The fire can rage and make everything a swirl of colour with amazing shapes that get larger and more seductive. 

The fire is alight. The spark has taken, the flame matured and the result is glorious. And for its intense time the fire is all. Glorious, destructive, damming and grave.

And you watch… as it grows… and like a dog you don’t know how to handle… you freeze, as it licks you all over.