Darkness

In the dark.

In the dark they met.
In the cold, dead, hopeless, darkness they came together.

All around them death and destruction
All inside them confusion and soul reduction
They came together
Tired.

An idea
For warmth, for hope, for companionship, to cope
They would create, a spark, a fire.

One brought a heart as hard as flint
The other convictions dry and cracked as kindling
Together they built their fire.

They turned towards it, towards each other
and
the darkness faded
Their worlds were filled with blinding light
Consuming warmth
It was playful, it was beautiful, it was theirs
They smiled
For a time the fire grew strong, it grew knowing the reflection of its light on their faces, knowing their laughter and smiles.
It danced for them and grew hotter still wanting to swell the pride in their eyes.
BUT
Once tall enough to see past the proud faces, their smiling eyes,
it saw
It saw the darkness
It felt the cold
It heard the destruction
It was never told
It was never told of the world beyond those faces
And soon it started to grow old, dim
The darkness was consuming
The cold was too much
The distraction too vast.

It flickered and struggled, grew dimmer still
It could no longer from this world hope distill
With a heavy heart as hard as stone and convictions as dry as kindling bone.
It lay dead, just ash, still warm to the touch
Dead as ash like its parents past.