Five in Five

(x = space)

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Five in Five

(memoriam)

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Out, out, brief candle! but

A candle isn’t brief

That’s on us for

A metaphor

Sometimes a real one, I guess

Sometimes the candles

In the church

Are pretty short

And thus available

For show

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But the candle length

Is years,

I guess we know

Three score and ten

In made-up inches

Or in centimeters

Or real ones

(as in church)

To illustrate

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You see, they are ubiquitous

Both real and imagined

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The length may vary

By abstraction

Fate

I guess

And relativity

Macbeth’s flame is undone

Too soon by happy counting,

Not as an end

To tyranny,

His tragedy of making

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But this is not a nation

Or a clan

Though Scots be in it,

Great text

Or a metaphor

(sorry to mention

then dismantle)

Simply a life

As it was

And as it’s gone

Always

Every hour I think on it

Too soon

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C L Couch

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Photo by Rob Wicks on Unsplash

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The Gifter

(x = space)

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The Gifter

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Something brief and fragile

Like the low candle

Ready to touch the plate,

Run out of life

Of thread and wax to burn

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Who says “brief candle,”

Hamlet or Macbeth?

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Both ready for an end,

Relinquished from the missions

Set upon by ghosts and witches

Daggers and blood

And other apparitions

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That like the dagger

Blood on hands

In fact, all apparitions

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Might be of the mind,

Modern interpretation

Of medieval magic

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A gift of time in time

The gifter having only one

For whom the limitations

Of one time can

Never, never, never, never, never

Be enough

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C L Couch

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And all our yesterdays have lighted fools

The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!

Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player,

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,

And then is heard no more.

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Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 5

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red light

Photo by Maeghan Smulders on Unsplash

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