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Open Poetry #38
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Stub Candle
| Open Poetry #38 |
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Stub Candle |
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Ratleader
since 2003-01-23
Posts 7026Visiting Earth on a Guest Pass 
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Stub Candle Afterward, they gave us all the wedding candles. Dutch are frugal; use it up, don’t waste a thing, that’s their way; they knew we’d need them all, in time. Oh, we found many uses but we had such a lot of them, a power outage here, a project there, once an earthquake and how many campfires with a beach to light. We had a drawer full until a box full and in the years somewhere, a few; then one, burned to a stub unnoticed. It was out in the garage somewhere when I was cleaning, found it grimed yellow with time and hands, the bottom gone round with handling, rubbed on saw blades now and again a glaze to stop the steel from sticking. I nearly threw it out, realized just in time. Now it stands, just barely, on this desk, an inch or so of then that is a strange new comfort to me now with all the years and chances it survived. It would burn again if we asked, give all, glow steady down until the wick fell into that final wisp of melted wax. No, that isn’t so; it’s burning now. The truth is that we never put it out. Yes burning, do you see the flame? I do, and so can you; just us two. |
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| © Copyright 2006 Ed Ratledge - All Rights Reserved | |||
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Martie
Moderator
Member Empyrean
since 1999-09-21
Posts 28049California |
Ed...you made me remember the children's birthday candles...I saved them too...but your poem is more than candles, the depth looks into lives and flickers on the feelings there with truth. Lovely!  |
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passing shadows Member Empyrean
since 1999-08-26
Posts 45577displaced |
makes me think of hurricanes...but who needs a hurricane to let the flames shine on? |
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Sunshine
Administrator
Member Empyrean
since 1999-06-25
Posts 63354Listening to every heart |
And you thought you were out of words? Nay... and the flame you speak of, from the source... well, it should reside in every one... but only some special poets will search for, and find it.  |
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the quell Member
since 2006-07-19
Posts 144Liverpool, UK |
Marvellous work! You told such a strange story...I say 'strange', because its something I would never have thought to write in a million years; and that's always what moves me most about other people's poems, when they make me think completely outside the box. I particularly loved the ending. Bravo You've gone wrong! You've gone wrong in your mind-tank! |
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suthern
since 1999-07-29
Posts 20723Louisiana |
No, that isn’t so; it’s burning now. The truth is that we never put it out. Yes burning, do you see the flame? I do, and so can you; just us two. This is absolutely lovely! *S* And so the stub's use is even more important than all the ones used to make drawers slide easily or to keep you from stumbling in the dark... for it reminds you of beginnings, the joy that was then... and all the joys you've found together since. *S* Beautiful!! |
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The Lady Member Rara Avis
since 2005-12-26
Posts 7634The Southwest |
"an inch or so of then" grabbed me and hangs on yet you're not sentimental, are you? |
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Honeybunch Member Rara Avis
since 2001-12-29
Posts 7115South Africa |
How lovely to read the results of a poet's eyesight that can see so much more than others. This is most touching in the depth it displays. "an inch or so of then" - and so often this is discarded and forgotten. |
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