Smoke and Honey

The whiskey emotion, anger,
Subtle and seductive to breathe,
A flicker of heat, appealing

Until too late and it’s taken
Away the mind it teased, set fire
To the house, licked free from the hearth

Where it seemed contained to the walls,
From the walls to the roof, its flames
Dancing out of splintered windows.

Everyone who’s felt it has felt
That initial empowerment,
The falling away of small fears.

Then wrath wastes the flesh that feeds it,
And dawn finds cold ash on a pyre.