She wandered through the world like a ghost
A waning moon
Her glow tarnished by a mist of tears
At the end of another numb day she sat
Outside in the warm night
And watched a candle flicker
Its vessel cast a dull red glare which
Blossomed in reflection on the glossy table top
Like the fat petals of a showy dahlia
And as the flare softly lit her flesh
She attempted to fill it
Trying to remember what it was to be human again
Instead she remembered other warm nights
Morocco, Malta, Spain, Italy, Portugal
Nights in other gardens with other flames
A sadness washed back over her turning her opaque
So she blew out that fragile light
And evaporated evened out into the air
Casting a spell of forgetting
Killing those memories
And sitting in the dark
Here
Now
Tonight
Smoke from the dead candle curled fragrant
Up into the inky sky
And as she looked up she remembered something important
You cannot make the stars go out
No matter how hard you try
