Space Between the Stars

I started this poem several months ago. I put it aside until I saw it in my poetry folder this past weekend. I’ve tweaked it some since then, and I think I’ve made some improvements. I think the person speaking is in the process of becoming ready to die. I don’t want the poem to be sad—at least not in totality. I want it to feel like a change coming—a bittersweet but beautiful change. I’ll keep working on it.

I’ve spent dark nights shivering,
shrouded from the light,
from the blaze of its sharp glory.
I will be blind soon,
eyes spent from searching.

Fading
I am.

I’ll breathe against the flicker when it comes,
fast and fleeting in the shadow.
My air will flare the flame or sigh it out.

Once I was a wind,
soon a vacuum vast,
a space between the stars,
a peace, a death.