The Lantern Within

I move through the haze of my own thinking

hands sweeping walls I cannot see

Ahead, a lantern glows

a flame inside the chest

that declines to be snuffed

It wavers like a heartbeat

a silent insistence

that even in the heaviest dark

something persists

I step closer and it moves with me

a tether

to the part of me

that remembers courage

when I forget

Its light is neither loud nor brash

it does burn, it sustains

Each flicker is a word unsaid

each shimmer a small forgiveness

I give myself

in silence

I follow it through the night

past regrets that crowd the edges

past fears that curl in the corners

and I realize

the lantern is within

always

and I have only been learning

how to step into its glow

The dark remains

and I do not mind

for the lantern never chases it away

It simply illuminates

the path I make

with my own two hands

the path I have always taken

and only now begin to see