The Light Within

Predictably those
shadows creep over again
flawlessly stitched together

by expert craftsmen.

Locked together
black branched fingers

overhead form skeletal rafters
a thick cage chamber.

I take from my heart

that beeswax lantern sculpted

candle you installed
and use it to part

with lightsaber strokes
my shrinking coffin.

Life behind these bars
cold to my delicate touch
the thoughts buried

deepest away on my limping crutch
your candle begins to falter.
I know you cannot warm me forever.

Alone with gritted teeth
I pull at these glass sharp branches

labouring hands soon bleeds
through gloom decapitating snatches.

I build a fire
from these memories
and light it with your love
it soon burns
with a growing thirst
warming me, through expelled gloom
I have finally the room

to breath.
Tearing down ruined childhood
 to feed this hunger
a gurn breaks out on my wincing face,
awkward,  soon settles
like a content cat
into a relaxed smile
below my soot smudged nose.
This woodland, now green and open

the leaves soft under scabbed dirty palms

I blow out your candle and return it to my heart.