“Condemned to the Flames”

Deep within her luminous eyes
burns a roaring, writhing fire
until, at last, its last ember fades
and she screeches, “Liar!”

She is taken in a storm of steel
that is a harbinger of flowing blood.
And, in her absence, the world is shocked
as her breath escapes in a desperate flood.

The dissatisfaction, the desolation
of looking one’s death in the face
and knowing it will doom this world of sinners,
but also knowing it is God’s last grace.

Her back holds straight, head high,
arms bound, eyes of winter ice—
the moment of death has surely come,
and the flames rise and cut and slice.

As flame flashes over her smoldering mane,
jeers and laughs fill her ear.
As she releases her last, defiant gasp,
only the flames may know her fear.