Consent to Burn
A Meditation on Choosing Experience Over Safety
Life struts through veins like a charming criminal,
offering treasures already broken.
Each dawn appears discolored but smiling,
asking devotion without mercy.
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Days glitter with promises that stain,
pleasures teach hunger how to speak.
We drink sweetness knowing poison waits,
yet thirst applauds the risk.
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Living becomes an art of consent
agreeing to burn while admiring the fire,
choosing excess over innocence,
calling damage "lived experience".
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Time applauds every reckless choice,
then collects payment without a bill.
Still, we dance amid the wreckage,
crowning survival as triumph.
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To live,
to kiss disaster with open eyes,
to carve meaning from the ruins,
to stand radiant,
even as everything breaks.
About the Creator
Tim Carmichael
Tim is an Appalachian poet and cookbook author. He writes about rural life, family, and the places he grew up around. His poetry and essays have appeared in Beautiful and Brutal Things, his latest book.
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Comments (2)
"Living becomes an art of consent agreeing to burn while admiring the fire" "We drink sweetness knowing poison waits, yet thirst applauds the risk." These lines were so brilliant! Loved your poem!
"Living becomes an art of consent, agreeing to burn while admiring the fire" This line absolutely hits. The choice to take the risks even with no anticipated or assured " safe " outcome, that is truly what it feels like. I really loved this.