Years burn holes
into clothes, branding

age-spots into skin,
licking skeletal tinder.

Even minds catch
slowly, reduced to less

than air. All of us
eaten by flames

invisible to the naked eye
that melts

faster than butter
at the crematorium.

Then beyond us, time
ignites the horizon,

sky charred to ever-
lasting ash, sparks

of our expired passions
frozen into stars.