Candle

Thank you, old pier

for standing here

so many years

keeping your 

worn legs and back

still, strong, straight 

against the wind.

Thank you for holding fast

in the currents against 

the storms that want 

to take you out limb 

by limb.

Thank you for your beauty 

so welcome tonight

on his birthday, gone 5 years 

but resting somehow in

this hovering purple mist.  

Thank you for the planks 

that recall his dark brows, 

for the spray like his silver hair.

Thanks for your stillness, 

for this lovely pause 

as the moon shines on your 

old bones like a candle on a cake.