The candle and the fire

29/06/2021 Nilson Lattari

The candle is only a candle if there is fire on it fluttering with the wind. They draw confused shadows on the walls, they bring life to the darkness, and distract people and children if they join their fingers and hands to create images like a shadow play.
Dishes are served romantically when illuminated by them. They are present when couples celebrate their complicity, their future wedding, anniversaries or when their love starts at the moment.
The candle is only a candle if there isn’t fire to veil the body in a funeral, and everybody says goodbye, cries, hugs each other, and desires that the long trip doesn’t end in black. They symbolize another life ahead.
They are in birthdays. The number of candles means each year lived, and everybody desires happiness to the person.
They lead the tripper throughout the dark road who protects the fire with his hand, in curve like a lamp. They lead people in their homes through dark rooms, and check every strange noise like in a labyrinth.
They are in religious walking in every hand, to adore the image that is above the crowd, carried on the men’s shoulders. They illuminate “The Virgin” so that she puts together all hearts. Their warm tears fall down and slide on the children’s tremble hands at the First Holy Communion.
What would the candle be if there wasn’t the fire?
It would be only a piece of wax, paraffin, forgotten in a drawer with a matchbox beside it, prepared for an emergency calling, to celebrate a men’s meeting or only to be the company for lonely people.
They are in mansions or in cottages, in castles, in churches, with the saints and their hoods lost in the road. Or maybe with the unclean man waiting for his victim. She, the candle, he, the fire, inseparable partners turned into light.