A blanket of darkness

Suffocating, terrifying

You cannot see, move, escape

For fear.

Paralyzing fear

Chains wrapping, cutting, constricting

Stealing breath, hope, life.

And then.....

A wink of light, fire

A golden glow, flying

Ever closer.

You reach, grasp

At the foreign light

In all the dark.

Tiny eyes, a tiny being

Another light, another

Flashing to a melody 

That only they can hear.

Chains loosen, release

Shaky limbs stretch

A body that has forgotten

How to move freely

Without the rust

The rust of fear.

The sun is rising

A burning flame

Of hope.

From the flame,

A spark

A seed, which plants

In the parched soil

Of your soul.

From it grows a flaming flower

Full of hope, it carries a part of you

In its burning petals

        * * *         

The return, deep down 

You knew, you feared

The darkness would emerge. 

It comes, a rolling wave, 

The ash of smothered souls

Stripped of hope

They have surrendered

Eyes glazed, you glare,

In terror, at the ocean,

Immense and undrainable.

You run, the light is visible

Yet you cannot reach it

Then....

You remember

The flower, born from you

The hope within...

It is near smothered

By your own fear

But still it glows

A sob, as you throw it

Hard

Into the light

Where you cannot reach

But you know

If it was left

In the dark

The flame would die.

Sacrifice

Petals, tossed to the light

For you know, if they

Ceased to flame, your hope

Would die with them.