Stark naked, bare bones images of life,
tossed into the high beam of a limelight,
can be like buckets of ice cold water
dashed onto the heads of smiling,
drooling dreamers. snuggly camped
on a lush patch of grass inside
a raging ring of blazing trees
and red-hot, crackling brush.
The startled sleepers jump up, jittery,
cranky, cursing the splashers for
wrenching them from peaceful slumber
until they see the massive flashes of fire
flaring into the campsite and realize how close
they all came to being fried.
©2013 Paul Howard Nicholas