Like A Wild Fire

 

 

All was going well

Or so we thought,

When all of a sudden, a spark,

Before they fought.

 

The spark was small,

Almost indistinguishable,

But the driving wind made it

Almost inextinguishable.

 

A little misunderstanding;

Neither willing to give in,

From thence emerged a battle

That both had to win.

 

If they had reflected,

If only they had paused

It would not have gone so far

Considering the cause.

 

Too small to remember

In light of the prize,

For one combatant to win

One must be downsized.

 

 

The cause has receded

And there is now a new bent:

To win this raging dispute

Is the other’s intent.

 

At times it died down

As though finally diminished

But one of them stoked the fire

As if to say, it’s not finished.

 

Male and female

In a verbal combat,

Neither prepared to give in:

Both on the attack.

 

From the trivial

To the highly non-sensical,

This purposeless verbal battle

Between two adult people.

 

From a little spark

That should have died right then

To a raging inferno

And a huge problem.

 

Out of control

With no end in sight,

Two incensed combatants

In a verbal fight.

 

 

 

A clear-the-air here:

It was not me and the wife,

Our quarrels are usually

A two-minute strife.

 

Particularly because

I am getting old

And before I get heated up

I usually run cold.

 

Take that, my friend,

In whatever way you like,

But my present age makes me

Too old to fight.

 

Plus, I had my share

A very long time ago

When the wife always emerged

The winner of the show.

 

 

Wild fires and quarrels

Should be kept at bay,

Douse them both at the start-up

By turning away.

 

The flare-up finally ended

But a lot had been said,

And there was much to sort out

Before going to bed.

 

If only one had not

Continued stoking that fire

Both would be on firm ground

Instead of the mire.

 

This was you and I

At one time or another:

A dispute, a quarrel, a noise…

Like a wild fire.

 

Stewart Russell © June 5, 2023