One by One
One by one, they began.
Like far of flames no bigger
than the grains of sand between shore and sea.
They began.
They are always there, in
their own way as important as the emptiness.
Even when mine was the only
one I could see, they were yet there.
One by one,
They began to flicker
brighter,
Move closer to my world.
One by one, they touched me.
All too soon it was the
one’s not meant to be.
The young ones,
The special ones,
Who should have outshone
mine.
One by one, they grew in
number,
And the aggregate of mine
own light yet still was bright.
And then one by one,
They were part of me.
So hard at first to
understand,
So painful to perceive,
So mournful to accept,
And yet it must be-
For all that is darkness has
an opposite in light,
And for all those that have
left,
So others have emerged,
And while all is in balance,
so it must continue.
One by one they came closer
Closer to my door.
One by one they were
acquaintances, my friends,
Then closer still.
One by one they took from my
aggregate
To the point at which each
diminished mine own.
And then I was but one alone
And no other included me in
their aggregate.
And then, as my staff and
rod were taken,
So mine own began to fade.
One by one they came,
And one by one they ceased.
It must be – but no consolation
is this.
The pain is bitter, bitter
yet to the point of acceptance.
Gone are the questions of
reasoning,
There is no logic within,
there is no point without.
Now I set quietly watching
those most important to me wane,
And then flicker, and then
leave.
The ever firm handshake,
becoming a weaker shadow if it’s past,
Watching the embers die;
feeling the warmth recede.
One by one, mine own fails.
One by one, in time, I will
be in their number.
Andrew White