Lceel and Rocas rose to the Velvet Verbosity 100 Word Challenge to write exactly 100 words on “Fire”. Two amazing, great, and very different submissions. Let’s start with Lceel’s submission:

Funny thing, fire. We use the word for so much. He’s on fire, but we know he’s not. He has a fire in his belly, but we look and see nothing. His loins were on fire, when he was really just horny. He’s burning up, when really he’s ill. You’re fired, when all you’ve done is fuck up and lose your job. But to HAVE fire is to have passion and drive and desire, things we cannot see but in the result. The danger is in being consumed by fire, that result can be visible also. Fire that’s uncontrolled kills.

I’ve always wondered about the phrase “you’re fired”. As in a firing squad? I screwed up so you’re going to take me out back, blindfold me and shoot me now? So I looked it up and found this on Google Phrase Finder (bet ya didn’t know Google had a phrase finder, did ya?):

The words “you’re fired” are often used to tell someone that they’ve lost their job; have been discharged. The similarity between “fired” and “discharged” may suggest a connection with firearms. I could find no real origin in any of my reference books, other than suggesting the analogy with firing a gun. However, one day, I was sent the following which appeared in the Clevedon, Somerset, Civic Society Newsletter for Summer 1996:

“We discovered recently that the word ‘fired’, meaning discharged from a job originated on Mendip. It comes from Item 6 of the Laws of Mendip Miners.

“If any man… do pick or steale any lead or ore to the value of xiiid (=13 pence), the Lord or his Officer may arrest all his lead and Oare House or hearthes with his Grooves and Workes and keep them in forfeit… and shall take the person that hath soe affeended and bring him where his house or worke and all his tooles and instruments are… and put him into his house or worke and set fire in all together about him and banish him…” Fired indeed!

My goodness. Makes getting canned look like a walk in the park. Be grateful for layoffs instead of being burned alive, I always say. But I digress and offer Rocas’ 100 poetic words on Fire.

FIRE

 

Within your colors I can dream

And see those things undreamt,

You pull me into places new

To places I’ve before now went.

 

 

Within your heat I feel at home

By your warm, yet teasing touch,

You protect me with your warm embrace

Keeping back the colds’ grey clutch.

 

 

Your light reflects within my eyes

And you are all that I can now see,

Your glow descends down deep within

To become at one with me.

 

 

So carry me off to distant shores

And to times forgotten long,

Within my hearth, I watch your dance

And hear your sirens song.

My 100 Words on Fire this week is adapted from a longer piece called Gentle Grace I wrote last year.

I want to be gifted a window into souls. To see the secrets etched onto their bones. To taste the salt of their tears, the tang of their sweat, the elements in their blood.

This boy, round-faced and shining like a polished stone. I could dare him to become what he longs to be. Challenge him to burn bright and hot, to smolder and churn and heave, to flex and break. I could stand near to let a spark from the fire in my bones ignite him. I could flare and stomp through them, reduce the whole affair to ashes.

For the original posts for Lceel and Rocas, please link through and show your comment love. In the age of text messaging, twittering, emoticons, and acronyms, all efforts at writing need to be rewarded. If you missed this week’s challenge, fear not! A new challenge will be posted on Tuesday. In the meantime, feel free to write your own 100 words on Fire.