Fleeting Candle

A fleeting candle with both ends burning
getting brighter as flames converge
this cruel world just keeps on turning
from the fire what can emerge?

Could we have slowed the rapid blazes
is the question friends have asked
as they stare with steel-eyed gazes
and contemplate a life that passed

but their candles also burn,
quickly and from both ends, too
maybe this time they will learn
that there’s something they can do

to turn the table on their pain
and maybe find a new direction
so this lost life won’t be in vain
but maybe stir some self-reflection

but these life lessons seldom last
and soon we find we must return
for another life snuffed out too fast
another two-end candle burned