Gasping churns the burning air around me,
Pain with clasping teeth and crackling fire.
Anger's threats have roared and nearly drowned me,
[i]Push it all away[/i] my one desire.

Decades stack, accrete; my spirits tire,
Long to lose the ancient woes that crowned me.
Magic feathers droop, my claws perspire,
Gasping churns the burning air around me.

Nature's ways are clear; they can't confound me.
Frighten, yes: I'd call them slightly dire.
Flames devour the creaking chains that bound me.
Pain with clasping teeth and crackling fire

Ought to work, my every birthing pyre
Death to death. Its shackles can't impound me.
Free my soul when, doomed by angst and ire,
Anger's threats have roared and nearly drowned me.

Clear my head. Forget the way it's browned me,
Charred and embered. True results require
Sublimation, lengths that still astound me,
[i]Push it all away[/i] my one desire.

Questions bristle: worth the muck and mire,
Worth another stretch of doubts that hound me?
Maybe so. I hear the chanting choir,
Flap and dive before the fear can ground me.
Gasping churns...