32 Candles

A poem by Julia R. DeStefano

Photo by Sergei Solo on Unsplash

32 Candles

Hot, alive, inexhaustible,

I drink the moon like a fine wine -

in love with loving

and the way it swells over me like a big band number

to take me firmly in its thoughts,

throw its arms about me in coveted shelter

and squeeze, squeeze, squeeze

because it needs me as I need it.

Eat me up like the snow blanketing my small earth

‘til the fire alarm sounds

so we don’t die full of questions.

To guide me through the doorway of your heart

is to bask forever in the treasure of my centuries-old soul -

an illumination of pain transformed

like the luckiest candle on the cake,

the most important wish of all -

the one that finally brings you home.

© Julia R. DeStefano