Sleep walking through life.

Strange talking, no guarantee of growing old.

At twenty, we are certain we will never die.

At ninety, we are certain that we will.

Given life from the flame that came before.

Light passed from one life to another.

I am the light from that other flame,

offering colors, making shadows,

giving warmth, heat, and burned offerings,

consuming the sallow paraffin of my body.

I cannot own the smoke that rises

from my extinguished light.

Our legacy, a forest of burned out wicks

and wax returning to a solid universe,

as the broken wing of the stone angel

lays across the body.

January 10, 2022 – April 1, 2023