Lantern

I am a light, and I am pure, because I was created that way. I am brighter than any earthly thing any mortal being has ever seen.

I shine behind lenses fitted crudely about an awkward housing. There never used to be lenses, but their creation was a necessary part of Becoming. They are crafted from shards of others' lenses which have broken, handed to me by broken people so that I may construct my own, and as mine break along their various faults, so shall I hand out shards to those whose lives I am shaping. The housing is not awkward by definition; it has become so shaped by the many hands that have warped it throughout my years. It does not define me--it is merely a vessel--but it becomes the perception of who I am, both because that is part of its purpose, and because others who see me have only their own lenses through which to view me.

My light falls onto that background which is nearest at hand, into which I've carried myself, sometimes by folly. As my lenses shift, and the backgrounds change, those images which are created will become what others will come to define me by. And, though limited, my choice of lenses through which to shine, and screens on which to project, will become what others call my character.

(work in progress)