I can't explain the darkness
                          That tears at my soul,
                          The eyes that watch me from inside.
                          There's no escape -
                          No hope to be rescued.
                          This is the foe that I alone must face;
                          The creature against who
                          I have no chance of winning.
                          Yet through the blackness there is
                          A single ray of light,
                          A glimmering of Hope.
                          A candle... lighting the path to victory,
                          Leading me back to myself.
                          I have won...
                          But even as a triumphant cry escapes my lips,
                          A breath of wind extinguishes the flame.
                          Now only a whisp of smoke
                          Marks the place where Hope died -
                          And adds to the darkness that, once defeated,
                          Now Returns

©1998 K.J. Parlee


That Which is Sacred by Stephanie Pui-Mun Law