Afterglow

Like a candle

Much of our passion and flame for life

Evaporates

Leaving behind energy’s aftermath of drippings

Puddles

And hardened waves of stillness

Save some whisps of undulating smoke

trailing into infinity’s residual archives

So many lives merely melt away

Leaving little trace

Yet while the kindling burned

Light was available

Chosen at times to see

Other times to feel

Still much of the time

Taken for granted

If not ignored

Oh

To seek out the glimmering of life

Hoping not to leave bougie aftermath

As clean-up for others

To burn brightly throughout one’s existence

Like a candle’s rise and fall flicker

For lest we forget

Tribulations of a mind and heart burning to live

Can endure the wavering winds of time

Become more than a tapering glow about to cease

Even after succumbing from lack of oxygen

Such is life’s afterglow