A Candlestick Poem by RIC BASTASA

darkness sets in our place
and from time to time
we lurk without having
to do anything about it
we wait to a distress
we live in distress
we embrace the darkness

tonight i have decided
to light a candlestick
there shall be no cursing
of darkness no living in
the hopelessness of
its useless embrace

i sit watching its light
and start to scribble some
lines for my poetry about
the triumph of light over
the harshness of darkness.

somehow in the middle of
darkness that we find so hard
to explain and live with
we still have something to
do, to tell, and make a difference
from among those who simply
sleep and snore and then
let go with their lives dying
without having to know
what and where meaning lies.