Antonio Dias (Hamilton, Ontario)

A black, desolate goodbye
Brimming with throbbing embers
Which seem to stretch to the sky,
For a hope that isn't there.
It's filled with stinging ice-cold tears
Dripping into a fire
Of all my worst fears,
That have all fallen on me at this moment,
Trapping me under wasted years.

My eyes catch on the smoke-filled air
Which rise from a scalded past,
Leaving me with nothing but a prayer
For my lonesome self,
And for those taking the worn path
Which is freckled with holes,
And surely, an impulsive aftermath.
Spectacular and glorious, it will be,
To see everything burning
That ever hurt me -
A prodigious, everlasting Hell,
Laden with sweltered and blackened debris.

Charred ash from the burning plight,
Gets lost in the day
But found in the night
As if it were the moon,
Which rises, despite
Having never won a battle
With the light.