Though candle wicks are meant for burning,
Here's I lesson that I'm learning...
If you light both ends someday
The candle quickly melts away.

The little candle, beautiful in its simplicity, was all that a little candle ought to be.

Her light was abundant in the occasional presence of darkness, but when all around her was light, her light was not needed, and she simply glowed, a glow that pleased those who visited her room.

Her heat was enough to light many other candles, when called upon to do so, but standing alone, her heat was not needed.

Her aroma was exactly what it should be, enough to lift the spirits of those who passed through her room, without overpowering them, and this, too, was just as it should be.

But the little candle was not content to offer only such light, and heat, and scent as she was intended to provide.

No, the sad little candle was desperate to be a raging fire.

And one day it dawned on her that, if nothing else, she could at least produce the heat and light of two candles, so she wiggled out of the base that had held her so straight and tall and proud, and she positioned herself in a way that enabled her to burn not only her exposed wick at the top, but also the wick down by her feet.

And for a time, the little candle was more than she had been, more than she was intended to be, and she was pleased.

But a candle burning at both ends quickly expires, and so she was soon gone.

And in her place, the empty base that once had held her stood cold and empty. Where she should have been proudly providing the light, and heat, and aroma that one candle is designed to provide, there was only darkness...