Brian Maloney (11/10/86 / Columbus, Ohio)

A smoldering candle
cannot understand the light that it gives
so close to being lit.
It is not a question of what can be conceived,
for man is what he makes of himself,
but a lack of opportunity to do so.

This is the greatest loss.

For us that have been blinded by the dazzling flash,
we who have chased the flicker
until its last glowing ember rests and rises,
darkness pushes in.

But the dark is not what blinds us;
it is the void where we saw
and continue to expect the light to be.

Darkness is nothing
more than an immediate horizon,
one that we can wave aside with each stroke of our hand
and pierce with every step.
And as the earth curves,
as more is yielded to our vision
while we seek to understand,
more can be understood.

Always will there be another horizon,
but each is nothing save the limit of our sight.
And each limit is nothing
save the call
to reach out
and trod onward.