the flame flickers a small ball of yellow suspended above the wick a boa of black smoke coalesces around the breath of fire

long tears of melted wax run in rivulets adding to the girth of the whole while ignoring the steadily shrinking waxen stature

the room itself alive with mercurial shadows that change the shape of the slumbering world consuming logic

i lay here shivering as the candle melts to a stub with a sputtering light that only serves to illuminate your absence

i find i prefer the darkness with the monsters and that we don’t need candlelight to see the loneliness as it embraces us

yet every evening i light one to guide your wayward heart to mine through the eternal night of this heavy longing

letting the hot wax drip across my flesh in an indecent surrogate to the softness of the touch that hesitates to cloth itself in light