IRON

how gold is tested,

through the hottest flame,

when all you've built turns to ash,

the scorners, the tongue on fire, the betrayers who's cowardly hearts have no beat, have no life,

when the valleys keep getting longer, darker,

they despised you, yet hate has no foot hold upon you,

thrown away, forgotten, mocked,

when all is turned to ash, when the ship is on rocks,

then, and many times over,

you bend low, and with broken tools....build again,

as iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another,

for the deep valleys, the forgotten seas, and the wounded spirit,

for that loyal heart bleeds on, unlike those who abandoned when flame was white hot,

then patience will prove trials to be gold.

photographs/ text:  Joshua Zirschky

bib: Rudyard Kipling

Psalmist.