LITTLE LANTERN OF LIGHT

Your blossom

has withered.

Your petals

are closing

around the sun 

inside. Why 

is that?

Why the sudden 

ending? I want 

so much

to know 

the answer.

But you are too busy 

closing to even 

consider my question.

Or maybe, for you

there is no 

question to answer. 

Maybe the closing

is just the most 

natural thing

to do, 

and what’s most 

familiar,

under

the circumstances. 

To expect you to

to do something different,

 to explain yourself, 

is, perhaps, 

the thing that really 

doesn’t make sense, 

and not the why

of the closing.

Still, as I witness you

vanishing before my eyes, 

something in me wants to 

shut down,

diminish my own 

light. But then 

I catch myself:

“This is not the time

to close, it’s the time

to open.

It’s the time 

to expose yourself 

to all the light 

you can, to seek it out,

bask in it

and grow it 

inside. Let this be 

the lantern 

you carry

and keep fueling. 

Never let its flame

dim or die.

Always be

blossoming.”