He found peace in darkness

He found peace in darkness

Gazing out from the backdrop

Of an unlit room

Watching clouds as shadows

Chase across a vaulted ceiling.

Where do they go

When the end comes

As it most surely will

So say the holy rollers

Spittle frothing on their lips

Pursed against the failure

Of good people

To accept their complicity in evil.

It is easy to understand

How the ancients believed

In a favoured world

When a distant comet

Seems to hang motionless,

High in the cupola

As if waiting for permission

To move on.

There has always been a mystery

To the movement of stars

The waxing of the moon

The pull of a high tide

On a clear night,

When the lights of the harbour

Are reflected back up into the sky.

Street lights twinkle

With the promise of a welcome

That will rarely come to pass

The howl of a dog is a lonely sound

The whimper of a cat

Almost like an infant

Crying all alone.

An empty bed is not a haven of hospitality

The weight of another sunrise

Is a suffocation

When a breath of air

Is an exotic draught,

An unforeseen intoxication

Leaving its impression

On a lost soul

Waiting to be saved.