It’s the first night of Chanukah and
Dorine calls me in to watch the candles go out.
The tapers have burned down to nubs but
their flames are still tall and I think,
how long is this going to take?
But I’m working on my patience so
I watch the Fabulous Flames.
They bounce they sway they shimmy.
The right one diminishes and
becomes more interesting.
It changes color.
It gets teeny weeny,
then rebounds.
It’s blue and flickering, barely alive.
I hold my breath.
I can snuff it with a thought.
Suddenly the left one wanes precipitously
And it looks as if it will be the first one out,
come from behind like Seabiscuit.
But there is no smoke and then its back,
Like the Terminator.
Now the slow steady right one
gets smaller and smaller and smaller and
gives up the Ghost in a puff of smoke.
The left one, abandoned, tries the bouncing thing but
it is joyless.
It wanes; this time its intentions are clear.
It gutters in the cup of the menorah consuming all the wax it can find.
Then poof, its existence ends with a thin ribbon of smoke, ascending.