Magnanimous 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 but a bourgeois aftermath

As clean-up for others,

To burn tenaciously throughout one’s existence,

Like a candle’s rise and fall flicker.

To remember

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 to a lack of air.

Such is life’s magnanimous afterglow.