Candle (Notevember 2020, #10)

Flicker, flicker, candlelight
Shine in shadows, shifting
Soot is thicker than the night
On the currents, drifting
Hollow hands will grasp you tight
Hold on to your candlelight
Hold your breath with all your might
Feel your body lifting

Is this fire you have brought
To our little attic?
Found what should not have been sought
Shifted what was static
Settle down into the dark
Snuff out fire, glow and spark
Hollow hands can make their mark
Pleasant or traumatic

Slower, slower, beating heart
Drooping eyelids, sinking
You are nowhere, and apart
Down the darkness, drinking
They will look inside the loft
But you are in the undercroft
Lain by hollow hands so soft
Bodiless, unthinking