Closer

Close to the source

of heat and cold,

close to the source of being —

stars at night, pens that don’t write

as temperatures dip below freezing

____________

Whichever direction we stretch

we draw more surely

into the circle of purpose —

we are here to be warm,

we are here to share light

and we are here to be

the great testimony

to joy, and to the insistence of life

on burning ever true,

the flame that glows and grows

and won’t consume.

©Wendy Mulhern

December 15, 2017