Burn you alive

i’m fire
vaporous
fast & fleeting
fun to look at
hot to the touch

i might be capable 
of keeping you warm at night
but if you get too close
     i will b u r n  y o u  a l i v e

i don’t mean to
but it’s in my nature
to consume everything i touch
until there are only ashes, 
memories left behind
to be cleared away
like dust on the mantle

i am a destructive force
until my perimeter is maintained

my containers are always expanding
—exploding 
with the pressure
i’m feeling inside
i keep bursting
into flames
despite my best efforts
to be a slow burn

the problem is not that i burn
it’s that i haven’t found
a boundary
that could hold me effectively

until now
i’ve only known
how to contain myself
by blazing through
everything in my path

as i run out of fuel
return to embers
to slow burning coals
i am contained within myself 
but also within
whomever i consumed
in my combustion