James Mclain Poet Free verse

i burned my candle from both ends

i burned my candle from both ends
and then complained
about the dark.

couldn’t tell night from day—
just a long hallway
with bad lighting
and worse memories.

the clock kept lying.
the mirror too.

through the wall
the magpies talked—
not poetry,
just the usual report:
pain,
someone elses suffering,
rent due,
another body giving up before it should.

I listened
because what else was there to do.

maybe it was madness,
maybe wisdom with a tight fist.
hard to say
when you’ve trimmed the wick
from both ends
and called it living.

I wanted more light
without paying the cost.
that’s the trick
that never works.

now I’m tired.
not heroic tired—
just used up,
like a matchbook
with one good strike left.

so I’ll take a nap.
let the smoke settle.

and when I see you—
keeper of the flame—
don’t lecture me.
you know
I burned bright
because I didn’t know
how not to.

sometimes
that’s all a man has and a good woman can only watch.

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Paige Hind January 8, 2026 at 7:03 PM Very interesting concept. Your work is very simplistic but not to say, it isn't packed with so much feeling.