Flickering Ghosts

• Elyn Ip, Grade 9
• Poetry
• 2021

We are made of fire and ashes.
We burn bright for the single hour,
Lend warmth and light to those around us.
Until there is nothing left but cold and silence,
We scatter with the first breath of wind.
We are made of light and shadows,
We’re beautiful, but we live our lives in constant fear -
That we should we flicker and split into a million pieces;
The fragments will never join back together.
Or worse, they form a distorted image.
We are the pale ghosts that haunt those left.
We sear our marks onto them like tear tracks or scars.
If you trace the lines, you can still read our stories,
Even after we’ve gone.