Lavender Steam
by Crissy Bliss Addams

Outside, the wind is cold.
The world exhales
and I step into cedar silence,
into the womb of heat.

The sauna breathes around me,
lavender rising with the steam—
a soft, purple veil
draped across my skin,
smoothing the edges of thought.
The warmth itself becomes my covering,
a cloak of fire without fabric,
a garment only your body can know.

Each bead of sweat
is a memory leaving,
a grief dissolving,
a wound unstitched by warmth.

The wood creaks like an old hymn,
the stones hiss like secrets
too heavy to hold.
I am fire contained,
flame without destruction,
burning only for myself.

Autumn presses against me,
but here, I glow—
skin flushed,
veins singing,
heart steady in lavender fog.
No rivers to drown me,
no tides to pull me under.
Only heat,
only breath,
only me.

And when I leave,
the night will be colder,
the air will bite harder,
but I will carry this ember inside—
a quiet blaze,
a lavender flame,
the glow of self,
sustained and whole.

#lavenderscent #poetry