If I should blow out

this candle
tenuous as it is
provide assistance in fading
from flame
to pungent smoke--
if I should
in one whispered breath
create passage
from heat
to coolness, glow
to night
I ask
you not assign
guilt
or blame. Know
I could not bear
to see, to feel
the flame
die
on its own.
It was after all
my only source of light.

Timothy Pilgrim