Burning a Candle

I'm burning a candle
as a metaphor for how short our human lives are,
us all being poor actors strutting and fretting.
But this one here 
is a three-wick spiced cardamom candle
not something extruded from pig fat
or gathered from hives.

I won't be lighting a lamp
courtesy of some whale's song cut short
by hard men on three year voyages 
out of Nantucket -
though I may catch the ferry there this summer
for a day of rubbing elbows with the tourist elite
none of whom smell like fish
or have salt plastered to their sun burned faces.

Indeed, human life is a bit longer
and a lot less cruel.
And the candles are plentiful
if you need one
to be reminded.