Candle and Smoke

A candle burns, yet trembles in the wind,

Its tender flame both comfort and alarm;

It heals the dark, yet leaves the dark behind,

A fragile warmth that cannot still all harm.

So love does glow, yet falters in its sway,

It fills the heart, but leaves the edges bare;

A shining dawn that brightens half the day,

And shadows linger where its beams don’t dare.

Yet memory, a mirror cracked with time,

Reflects both laughter’s glow and sorrow’s shade;

The sweetest song half-haunted by its rhyme,

The gift once held, the ghost of joy delayed.

Thus light and dark entwine, as one they prove:

To fully ache is but to fully love.