Winter 2024

Letter to a Mortal

Remembered world drowned

beneath skies of falling fire.


Dreams of ash laughing

at what could have been.


But don’t despair,

my life matters.


My life will be different,


than yours:


a memory.


A memory of a candle

extinguished

by the howling wind.


A memory that


was.


But not my life.


I am


a picture,

long turned to dust,


of lies


of lies and lies

that burn and burn


at the tendrils of love


that should have been.




A candle of light

in a universe of darkness


shines longer,


longer than me.


Suns will darken,


hearts will wither,


souls will turn to mist

on a foggy day,


but I will stand

here,


on this rock


that will be dust,


as a pillar,

a monument,

a lesson,


of what


should not have been.


A boat

of blood,

flesh,

and sinew,


sails away,


dream catcher


on the drowning ocean,


bathed in falling fire.


A boat

of blood,

flesh,

and sinew,


leaves me,


standing on a dusty rock,


imagining


what could have been


and what will be:


the eternal life,


maybe worth living,


that is mine.