Almost once

Extinguished - Artist Unknown

Who was that person? Of course no one yet. Your faint light extinguished, like a lit match in a breeze.

An inchoate potential of unfolding - stopped, released and drained.

My own face, a pulling beneath the eyes, heavy. My cheeks as though thumbs were pressing and pulling down. A deep tiredness, the dampening deep of disappointment.

But then also a relief, a feeling of a weight lifted, a reprieve, a deep sense of being unready; despite feelings of excitement. The imagined images of who you might have been, dissolving in a few moments.

Were you anyone before your light flickered out? Of course no one yet, but something.