How quickly love came

Announced only by the faintest whisper, you crept in and settled inconspicuously amongst the kindling of my heart.
 
Ignorant and careless, I tended you, faint ember, welcoming your gentle friendly light. As the brief days flickered by, I checked your glow with barely more than a cursory glance. How could I have noticed your flames audaciously leaping heavenward, daring to singe the sky?
 
Your unostentatious entrance belied your peculiar designs. You did not come to seek shelter and rest discreetly. No. You were not modest, meek or mild. Insidious, insouciant, insuperable, you took me by surprise.
 
Alarms begin to ring all around me. Disoriented, I look around to the place where last I watched you glow. Whence came this raging blaze?
 
What am I to do? Nothing, but look on as you scorch me. Can I be content, helplessly to witness you flare with sanguine enthusiasm around me?
 
Untouchable and untameable inferno, you crackle with laughter. With infinite confidence you sing, “Look! Look at me! Am I not beautiful?” For all your arrogance, I cannot deny you, for though you consume more of me with each lick of your fiery tongues, your brutish energy has a mesmerising lustre that mollifies.
 
Yes, I will be content to be razed. The precious flesh I’ve protected all my life, I now realise exists to be spent. Liberated as I burn, I turn to soot and billow into the air. Free to ride the wind for the first time, I smile satisfied and sigh.
 
Oh, how quickly love came.