Declaration of War

You light one in the morning,
and then another,
at first to keep the dark at bay,
but as the light gathers,
and pushes the blackness away,

each flicker becomes something more
than survival.
It becomes
a declaration of war.

About this poem

I can remember early in my war with depression, telling my therapist “I don’t want to survive depression, I want to shine again.”

“You can,” she told me. “Are you ready for war?”

Tom