1 Runner Up -- NLW Teen Poetry Contest

The Candle

Somewhere in the darkness

A lone candle burns.

It burns with its flame eternal,

Burning bright, so bright.

Its radiant light shines like a star,

A beacon of hope to all,

It fights the dark like a toy soldier, on and on

Fighting forever, never faltering.

The dark, it does not like the light.

It tries to wrap it with its wispy tendrils,

It tries to extinguish its flame,

Burning bright, so bright.

But no matter how hard the darkness tries,

It shall never succeed, no matter how it fights,

For the candle burns its radiant flame brightest in the night,

Burning bright, so bright.

Written by Michael, age 13.