On being with a friend Struggling upon learning that a sister had suddenly and unexpectedly passed away.
Life is a tenuous flame,
a fragile flickering
in a fitful breeze.
Sometimes dancing
sometimes steady
dim, bright, strong, weak
but always always
a light in the darkness.
And always always
so easily lost
to some passing caprice of fate
or the call of an unseen plan.
Leaving us to remember
that moment of light
and what it illuminated
no matter how briefly.
Of itself,
Of its surrounds,
Of each of us.
And what it lit remains,
it does not disappearinto darkness,
that despair is ours alone.
We have a choice –
to see only the night left
or to recall the light of day.
Rejoice in the light we shared,
it travels on forever;
the hope of heaven
now somehow brighter