One Candle Lights Another
By Oscar S. Cisneros
Pinpoints of brightness, starlight pointillism, painting endless black night with little lasting lights that flicker at wind's will yet each of them burns white light searing sincerity, too hot to hold, too cold to stand alone. And so it goes, one candle lights another and another lights another and another lights another until the first spark fades to smoke and darkness living only in the pinpoints that follow. Together they glow more brightly in the night. Apart they snuff quickly in the breeze. Little lasting lights light up lives sparked by the burning of love and kindness uncalled for.
I close my eyes and I can see them, pinpoints of brightness, like starlight pointillism, painting endless black night. I close my eyes and I can feel them, in a friend's touch, in a lover's kiss, in a hand offered to a stranger. A landscape of little lights, sparked one by one, one from one, starting with only one, this one, this little lasting light I offer to you, the light you give to others, that one day, some day, even when we're gone, we may look out and see our little lasting lights burning brightly together in the night.
