Candle Whispers

Moths and other creatures
find peril in hovering
especially above seductive candle flame

Yet

We sentient beings
hover not
instead
keep vigil over imagined messages
awaiting the magic
the comfort of vision

As we stare

Buried passions
encouraged by flame
make sacrificial
the walls of insulation
while our fortressed barriers
forfeit protection
dissolving resistance
becoming a river of liquefied defense

We wonder

Is the flame but deception
entrapment
subtle weaponry
seducing the innocent
destroying the gullible

Or

Is it pure light
ignitable by will
extinguishable by nature
its essence of imagination
weaving a ribbon of warmth
among the unlit kindling of love

For just as the cynical enemy
bounces its cold shadows of hurt
restlessly about the wall
waving its determinant position
one's heart beats echoes of defiance

Such are the candle's iconic images
empowering the ether of life
ever simple
ever flexible
even as its waxen folds
melt into mounds of spent energy
awaiting recycled resurrection

Darkness questions

But if we listen

Flame's inner glow whispers its promise to return