Afraid of the Dark
June 3 2009


They come out at night.

Delirious dreams,
sheets twisted
sweat-soaked.

Nocturnal creatures
stepping tentatively from hidden lairs;
over-sized eyes,
dark fur, black carapace.

Fear of the dark,
projecting our inner worlds
upon the outer one.

How deep
does sunlight penetrate translucent skin,
traverse cytoplasm and corpuscles,
illuminate the deep recesses
we always believed
inaccessible?
How, at night, all is made equal,
turning us inside out
flat as shadows
edges blurred.

At night, the stars come out.
Light that left billions of years ago,
we glimpse for an instant
its journey over.