Weekly prompt: oil, flicker, darkness

In honor of my daughter’s pet rat, Menchies, who passed away at age 2 on 7/21/18.

What she teaches me is loving
underdogs, misunderstood,
associated with the plague,
eating left out food,
hiding out in the crevices
of walls within a home,
baited to their deaths,
disdained among rodents
she cares for each creation,
spiders, bees, crickets, grasshoppers,
aware of where she steps,
seeking creatures to protect,
and this one, a red-eyed,
fluffy albino rat, was her joy,
she called her ‘baby’,
gone too quickly from her grasp
now feeling numb,
facing that time with her is done,
except within her heart,
her love like oil to a lamp,
flickering in darkness
where heartache compels
to hide the pain,
her love an eternal,
undying orange flame.

Emily Cloward © 2018