The Flame

A candle is burning tonight

A weary, dancing flame

Flicks in spent attempt to honor

The lives behind each name.

Confused, it sways too "far right"

To find those who blindly support,

The reason why it burns tonight--

The lives that were cut short.

In horror, it swings across the "left",

Too heartbroken to find,

The push to provoke lasting change--

Has failed them, one more time.

It sways from left to right, instead

Unsure of what to do

It follows broken, rocking mothers,

And grieving fathers, too.

Unsure of what to do

It wildly moves without design

Determined to mock the pattern--

The insanity of such crime.

Unsure of what to do

It glows upon demand;

It calls upon the devastated

To cast light upon the land.

It creates an open stage

And passes on its open light

To share its exhaustive rage

To dance, once more,

for us tonight.

And then, without much help

The flame will carry on

It knows without sudden gust

Its light will burn 'til dawn

And that, perhaps,

It resolves,

Is all it's called to do

Remind in RAGE-

"We need change!"

The gust

it asks of you.

Indeed, it sways

but it will burn!

Yes, while shaken

we must fight!

And that is why,

the flame of comfort

Burns wearily,

tonight.

Prayers for Parkland, Florida: For those who lost their lives, for those who were forced to witness, and for those who must endure. We will not take this again. Not again. Not once MORE.

(Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)