Lone candle wick drowns
Not meant to burn unattended
Acrid perfume, caramelized threads
Irked nostrils where scents are blended
Lit blithely hours ago
Pretty soft glow on the sill
Ghostly shadows at times flicker
Wax pool has now over-spilled
Malleable trills overflow
Drip dripping stiffening ripple
Down the smooth surface like snail
Tears of drunken-held tipple
Creating shapes frozen in time
Immobile the wax acts as mortar
Forgotten till self-extinguished
Shrinking flame a dying cavorter
Who knew an abandoned rushlight
Ubiquitous on every ledge
In every home is a symbol
Of lives played-out, on the edge
Another removed from the box
Sulfurous match sets alight
To be used up again and forgotten
Dispensable, replaceable, finite