‘The Ashes Refuse Silence’

Irakli Mirzashvili grew up in a family of visual artists in Tbilisi, country of Georgia, and enjoys working in oil pastels, creating collages, and photography. His artwork has been exhibited in the United States and Georgia. After living in rural Alaska, the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, and the great plains of Kansas, Irakli resides in the Austin, Texas, area.

The Ashes Refuse Silence

The fire was meant to erase me,

but smoke remembers everything.

It curls through my lungs,

etches itself on walls,

rides the hair of strangers who never saw the blaze.

I exhale ghosts.

They linger at the corners of cafés,

in the pews of quiet churches,

asking if surviving hurts.

I tell them survival is pyre enough—

and I have no matches left.

Even the embers lean close,

whispering in tongues of ash:

you are not finished.

You are flame.

Joshua Walker is a poet known for raw, mythic, and emotionally intense work. He has been published in Potomac Review, Southern Florida Poetry Journal, and Solarpunk Magazine. His poetry blends personal experience with universal resonance.