The Glow Until it Fades

The Glow Until it Fades

By L.

I strike a match…

So small but devastating if mishandled…

And watch…

As the flame finds its shape in the open air…

Light gathers into a fragile spine…

A trembling yes against the dark…

Warmth balanced on the edge of unraveling…

Each second burning brighter precisely…

Because it cannot stay…

It shows me how endings hide…

Inside beginnings…

How even the briefest ignition…

Already carries the promise of release…

A soft countdown dancing in the glow…

How something born smaller than a breath

can change the temperature of an entire moment…

Can teach the eyes to linger…

The heart to hold still…

Knowing the letting go is close behind…

Sulfur still clinging to my fingers…

I stay with the flame through its thinning quiet…

Until color turns to memory…

Until the light gives up its last small gasp…

And folds back into the dark…

Because life works the same way…

We flare…

We warm the spaces we pass through…

We illuminate things we never get to keep…

And then we leave a fragile afterimage behind…

In the minds of those who stood near enough to see…

A spark…

A breath…

A glowing middle that no one ever talks about…

And then the gentle truth…

That endings are not the opposite of beginnings…

They are simply the moment…

The glow becomes its own quiet goodbye.