Shadows of The Night

It's 3 in the morning

The rain

Like butterfly kisses
And sleet

Caresses the roof

And I
Am absent sleep

I watch a fly
Seek the sun

Inside the shade
Of a black desk light

And kill it.

With a flick of my finger

It is gone
Into the long dark night

As go the shades of thousands
Round the globe
In the early morning hours

Empty Empty their minds. Empty their souls. Empty their bodies now.

…..

Distracted by voices that shuffle in my head

I turn my eyes inward

Turn my mind outward

To feel the images
Of life
And what some call the call

Of the dead.

I see souls leaving bodies
In hospital rooms

Some smiling with relief

Others fighting their dread

Of the long dark night.

Their silent screams lay heavy
In the twilight world
Between worlds
Of ignorance and stifled minds

Their bodies go still
Go cold
Go to ground

Like cast off leaves
In the autumn shuffle

Such is life.

And in another hospital room

Or a savage hut

A woman with sweat on her brow

Her face contorted
Her belly engorged
By the fruit of love

Or was it lust?

Screams "Enough"

And breathes as hard or harder
Than the moment that brought her thus.

Her eyes too roll back inside her head

She shudders a last long breath

And from her womb,

That still dark place of love

Into the light

Emerges
Life's Antidote to death.

A child
A boy
A girl
A soul

That died (they say)

In another body

Another time

A time long gone or yet to be

Or was it yesterday?

Thus, says a voice inside my head,

The spiral of life

Like the storming tornado
Or the autumn winds of change
Will tear leaves from trees

That in the dawn of spring

Each soul for which we grieve

May live again.

For life goes on forever
In the ebbing and flowing
Tides of time.
….
Seeing thus,
I welcome

The dawning light

For my inner visions

Have helped me through

The shadows of the night

© 2001 Michael Knight

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