Flames

I'm always air,
Calm, cool, collected,
Always going with the flow,
Following whatever path life sends me on,
But...
Every now and then,
I'm not air,
I'm fire,
Not pure and simple,
But hot,
Burning flames,
The uncontrollable kind that eats you up whole,
The searing heat swallows me whole,
Leaving behind nothing but ash,
A gray abyss that threatens to take over completely,
Alone,
But,
The wind comes back,
It blows away the ash,
The nothingness,
The cold empty whole,
The lump in my throat,
The tears in my eyes,
They disappear,
And I hide it all with a simple smile,
Make a comment about something random,
Make a joke no one understands,
And no one notices,
And I'm back to being the still,
Stiff air,
The suffocating air that will someday become a hurricane of bright,
Hot,
Stifling,
Flames.
And it will devour
Everything.