When My World Was Dark

I remember your heart,

the way it glowed when you shared it with me.

I was drawn to you,

the way insects flock to light,

instinctually,

divinely programmed.

I was Icarus to your sun.

You took me in slowly,

like a stray dog making sure I didn't bite,

but you treated me like kin.

You found a small space inside yourself

to let me in,

a warm corner where I could rest.

You let your heart become my lantern,

a way for me to see through all my darkness.

When you found me, I was aimless,

the world, a wide-open alleyway,

but my mind,

a room without doors or windows.

I surrendered to nothing and to everything at the same time.

Your heart became a light I followed.

You lit the path when everything in me felt lost.

I lived in your lantern.

Even when the winds passed through and

it grew drafty at times,

it still flickered against the dark.

When I got curious,

I wandered through the rooms of your heart,

every chamber,

tracing the cracks in the glass

left by others.

I learned of your brokenness,

not through your admission,

but in the way you held your fractures.

You swore to me your flame was dying,

but through your cracks

the light shone through.

In your resilience,

you kept it burning,

feeding the flame with your oil,

your attentiveness, your softness.

Even when you had nothing left to give,

you still filled the reservoir

by pouring pieces of yourself.

You have the kind of fire that doesn't need an audience.

You're an old soul,

vintage,

an antique lantern in a world of cheap LED lights,

not meant for this lifetime.

You make thrifted clothing outshine designer brands.

Your modesty beams brighter than stadium lights.

Your glow is seared into my memory.

You should be revered as an artifact,

a relic that won't acquiesce her warmth to time.

Even the wind, with its frigid demand of you,

cannot erode the permanence of your light.

To reach for you is to cross the doorsill of the divine.

You radiate sensuality.

You're not a lightswitch,

you're a slow burn,

a lantern,

forged in iron,

made of glass,

strong, yet fragile in ways I don’t need the explanation for,

and like all things rare and irreplaceable,

I will handle you with care.