Old Man by the Fire (a Poem)

By Scott Holman

for my friend Dan- 

The old man by the fire

sits, in silence.

Alone but never alone

amidst a community of scars,

rehearsing their stories.

He rehearses his loves,

his pursuits,

his deep losses;

he realizes that nothing turned out

quite the way it was supposed to.

But the man sitting by the fire

finds himself

thankful, for the scars

somehow they

have given him room to breathe.

He realizes

after all this time 

that without all this disappointment 

he would never become

himself, free from all that is false.

He watches the fire,

tracing the work of the flames on the wood.

“Man is born to trouble,”

he growls,

“as sparks fly upward.”

As the fire turns to embers,

he knows his story isn’t done;

Lord willing, he will wake to another day

another fight

another love.

With the turning of the page,

in the blink of an eye,

in a popping flash of sparks;

he will find himself awakened

and awakening forever.

All tears wiped away,

all wounds healed.

Thankful for the scars

as each one holds 

his memory and identity.

He leaves a legacy of courage

to those with him around the fire; 

children and grand-children

listening and learning

the path for themselves.

This old man

presiding over thousands of fires,

is still fierce and 

full of wonder.

He’s becoming young again.