Quebracho

We placed you there at bedtime
atop our kept fire that would burn alone
through the night.
We knew that you could hold
a blue red coal in your heart
And in the morning light
our frozen hands would brush the ash away
set up the tinder and keep this room warm
one more day.

I think of you now.  When faith needs care.
When cold and wet slips in to steal
that fire in someone's heart
And I hope for something to be,
that will hold faith blue-red
until the night is over. 

[Quebracho  is a common name in Spanish to describe very hard wood tree species.]