The Vault (a poem and prose collection)

Six

light me a candle of
deconstructed nostalgia
over the place I've never been,
where i should mourn a hundred nights
of slipping away from cruel sunset
melting me of its purest intentions.

light me a candle of
every love I've never felt
for i am always irrationally scared,
for i am seeing it a word away from miracle,
for i have hurt my feet from
running away from its nukes,
frightened of what i could risk.

light me a candle of
reasons for sinking deep into the ache
confused with unrhymed poetry,
a self-awareness bordered with melancholy,
a canvas of abstract epitome
of something that i lost in this life.

love, light me a candle of
ocean where people chose to drown,
the timeless breeze would
forever engraved in my spine,
the backbone of those who feel wronged—
i will remember it
like a person I've loved and lost
along the tides.

light me a candle for
an epitaph long overdue,
light me a candle to
warm the frozen grave
i haven't known.

— nana, "the wake"