On Fire | Teen Ink

On Fire

November 16, 2017
By lost_and_free GOLD, Rancho Mirage, California
lost_and_free GOLD, Rancho Mirage, California
18 articles 0 photos 4 comments

Favorite Quote:
"'But man is not made for defeat... A man can be destroyed, but not defeated.'" - Ernest Hemingway (The Old Man and the Sea)


They sit at their computers,
Backs hunched over,
Fingers flying across the keyboards.
Their dead eyes look down,
Absorbed into the screen.
They don’t get up;
They don’t straighten their back;
They just sit there, typing.
Their fingers and their minds are the only things
On fire.

Another might wonder what they’re doing.
Why are they just sitting there,
For hours, days
On end,
Just typing,
Jotting down notes on paper,
And occasionally cracking jokes?

The thing is,
They’re all over the world:
These fiery but quiet souls.
Some draw the blinds and hide,
Some live all out in the open and
Sleep on the streets,
But they’re everywhere.

Here’s what cannot be seen:
Whether they be poets or accountants,
The ones at the computer are
Retelling, recreating, redefining,
Enriching
Life.

They are the birds on fire.


The author's comments:

We are the birds. The birds on fire. 


Similar Articles

JOIN THE DISCUSSION

This article has 0 comments.