The Candle

If the candle I carry
Burned not alone for you
Each flicker was a promise
That someday we would meet
Notes within the perfect song
With lyrics just as sweet

A score of my life
Going nowhere
Just playing games -nothing more
Random discordant fading refrains

Snap-shots in black and white
Still-visions to remain
In a hallway of mirrors
Distorted moments
In amusement

I stare at them now above time
Across empty streets
Through rain-trickled windows
With their makeup of pretense

They stand naked and wrinkled
Under showers of thorns
Rising up from a faraway horizon
Shriveled and blown away
As my youthful dreams, songs and games

I slumbered
In a cocoon of half-death
For eight or more years
While fireflies sewed sequins in the air

From a crumbling cocoon I awoke
A most beautiful golden butterfly
And there we met in an evening breeze
Two butterflies wind-blown to heaven
Circling a flickering candle
Bursting aflame