“Fire is a fragile lover, court her well, neglect her not; her faith is like a misty smoke, her anger is destructive hot.”

“And it was good just to hold her and touch the softness of her skin. He wanted to hold her hard, not to hurt her but to keep her safe, to show her that he was strong enough to protect her. Her beauty was like fire and strange music, and he loved her.”

“The way her body existed only where he touched her. The rest of her was smoke.”

“At the moment when her eyes closed, when all feeling vanished in her, she thought that she felt a touch of fire imprinted on her lips, a kiss more burning than the red-hot iron of the executioner.”

“The beauty in her lover's eyes
Was admiration of her own.”

“She's fragile because you let her be fragile.”

“In flame and smoke the wondrous city sinks!
Her walls are gone! her palaces are dust!
The desert is around her, and within!
Like shadows have the mighty passed away!”

“Her breath a warm fire
In every lovers heart
A mistress to magicians
And a dancer to the gods”

“And may my bronze name / touch always her thousand fingers / grow brighter with her weeping / until I am fixed like a galaxy / and memorized / in her secret and fragile skies.”

“The fire blazing in her dark and injured heart seemed to glow around her like a flame.”