• Flickering lights,
    dancing shadows,
    shifting creatures
    moving to and fro.
    Hot wax dries
    to my palm,
    and firelight reflects
    within my eyes.
    I breathe,
    deep and slow
    to keep the fear
    at bay.
    The lanterns must be
    lit,
    to shine light in to
    this horrid
    night.
    To reveal
    the path,
    the winding road,
    but darkness,
    deathly black,
    is what awaits
    me now.
    For I must be the
    first,
    to re-light the lanterns
    lost,
    to walk down
    the haunted road.
    My feet are heavy
    with despair, for
    the first,
    the first is the hardest.
    No flame in front,
    and none behind,
    nowhere to turn.
    Quickly as the fire will
    allow,
    I try to reach
    the lantern.
    Twenty steps,
    an eternity away.
    I finally reach my
    destination,
    and bring to life this
    desolate night.
    The rest is so
    much the same,
    hardened in fear,
    I walk,
    re-lighting what was
    lost.
    When I come home my
    breath is deep,
    hollow in its
    attempts to calm
    my beating heart.
    For now, I rest,
    as daylight comes
    and I embrace the sun.
    Tomorrow the moon will
    rise
    once more, but
    that night is not
    now.