Burning

A pine needle hung above the fire
Sweating in the blazing heat
Then leapt, engulfed in short-lived spire
Of living flame. It curled and hissed—
Became a coiling, writhing snake,
An ashen serpent breathing smoke,
A memory of the ancient drake—
A twisted glede of glowing wire—
Till, burnt by its own flame, it broke
And lifeless fell into the pyre.
When all the flames had died away
And fire had quench'd its burning lust
There nothing of the snake remained
But lightless, shapeless, lifeless dust.