Twenty-Five Candles They're burning out quickly as he sits and stares at them in the dark. It's her birthday again, for him, the very first time. Over the waxen spirals, hot liquid drips and pools unevenly on the frosted bed, swirling into an undefined mass and quickly cooling to the touch. Their fire is brilliant as they burn in the dark, but being consumed too quickly, they are reduced to nothing, as if the grand splendor of love rushing forward and meeting real life. He watches them burn, watches them burn, those little dying lights, and knows he is running out of time. What parallel to his thoughts are these that lit up his world just a few moments ago. Now, they huddle together as some conspiracy, plotting against the light and the love he's trying to keep hold, barely illuminating the gloom that surrounds him there in the dark. He remembers his earlier thoughts, how he couldn't wait for this day, to share in the day of her birth, and the life they were beginning anew. Like little promises in their lives, twenty-five flames start to falter and recede, evaporating into the pitch like woeful spirits finding their way home. What is she doing right now, and how is she rejoicing in this day? It would have been him that ushered her celebration in just a short time ago. In joyous mirth he would have swung her 'round, whispering his love into her delicate ear, then pulling back to gaze into her revealing eyes. There would be a toast to her and to them, "To you, whom I'll forsake for no other love, Happy Birthday sweet Jody…Happy Birthday." Except now, alone as she, he sits and waits for the barely blue flames to fade. Flickering valiantly, they finally leave, never to be seen or to brighten his world again.
Reason for writing:
My fiancee broke up with me about a week before her birthday which was on the 21st of December. I had so looked forward to celebrating it with her. Instead, I celebrated it alone.
Birth sign: Virgo
You need to log in to edit this poem if it is yours.
View more poems by Garrett.