The thick, dark air
Lingers menacingly
Threatening strongly
to suffocate
a single ray of hope

Flickering softly,
Dancing on the edge
Of its own extinction
its warmth stifled
by the chill of the room

Snuffed out and
Robbed of life,
The flame disappears.
Its smoke drifts
Into the air.

The last dying glow
drained of all
possibility of
providing a thread
of the one thing needed most

HOPE!