When the Ashes Begin to Breathe [a poem]

There comes a hush after the burning—
when the air is thick with endings,
and the earth is draped in a garment of gray.
What once was radiant has been unmade,
what once bore form has yielded to dust,
and all seems given over to silence.

Yet even here, in the stillness of surrender,
the hidden labor of renewal begins its quiet work.