we saw what we had become:

victims of our own self-interest,

pacing the earth, searching for priceless gifts,

no longer given.

we babbled on to strangers

in words that only made sense

in the insane tongue with which they were spoken;

the language of people who were more afraid of the truth

than the darkness in which they lived.

by the time the candles reached us

we had forgotten what our eyes were for.

the flame glowed warm against all our faces.

and the light was a home we never had.

a home with each other.