Carbon Petals

From smoke-black blooms, the lattice grows,

Soot-soft roses, graphite rows.

Veins of light in charcoal skin,

Diamonds whispering within.

Hold the stem with cinder hands,

Hear the pressure sing of lands

Buried, broken, forged by heat—

Ash remembers where we meet.

Breathe it in—coal to gleam,

Night made bright by what we’ve dreamed.

Carbon petals—open slow,

Turn the weight to living glow.

What was burned becomes our bloom,

Perfume rising out of doom.

Carbon petals—cut and shine,

Edge of grief, a holy line.

Wear the fire, wear the proof—

Love is stronger than the roof.

Under stone, the roots revise,

Sketching stars in hexagon skies.

Every scar a crystal seed,

Every crush a future freed.

Touch the soot that stained our speech,

Lift the vow that heat can teach:

Nothing pure avoids the flame—

Beauty takes a different name.

Breathe it in—coal to gleam,

Night made bright by what we’ve dreamed.

Carbon petals—open slow,

Turn the weight to living glow.

What was burned becomes our bloom,

Perfume rising out of doom.

Carbon petals—cut and shine,

Edge of grief, a holy line.

Wear the fire, wear the proof—

Love is stronger than the roof.

Press me, break me, make me clear;

Set my color, kill my fear.

Lay me under; I’ll return—

Hard and bright from all we burn.

Carbon petals—open wide,

Crown the stem where sorrows hide.

From the furnace to the air,

Lay your forehead—flower there.

Carbon petals—cut and true,

Light that labor gave to you.

Hold the bloom and understand—

We survived by making diamond.