Brian Eckert

Night passes much quicker than you think it does.

Fall asleep and you might miss it.

Day, in its dawn to dusk tyranny,

oppresses the Darkness,

keeping moon and stars

under lock and key.

Suppressed night-knowledge

hidden from children who gaze, like Narcissus, into lighted pools

blinded by the glare of their own setting sun.

I wake in the middle of the night of a full moon,

see the world bathed in incandescent light,

and understand there is an entire life I have never experienced.

The night is full of strange creatures

who’ve crawled out from under their shadows

longing for the light they will drown in.

I breathe damp, mushroom air outside my window, look up at the stars and wonder

how it can all be like this.

The world could be anything, but instead it’s like this.