Conversations in the dark

(2008)

Dark night,

Silence and shadows…

I see a person who sits, all alone,

Immersed in thoughts.

I take a step

Through the shadows.

I ask him,

Is he thinking

Of what he has left behind?

And what he is

No more?

The transition;

Simplicity to complexity;

“Progress”……

Which has been attained;

Has it left a void somewhere,

My friend?

Do the birds still chirp?

Does dawn still bloom

In crimson red?

Does sunlight still come

Streaming through the morning window?

Does the child of five

Still run after

Bright butterflies in the sun

And glowworms by the moonlight?

Does he still believe

That nothing

Can go wrong in life?

Is he still

Afraid of the dark?

Does he still know how to cry?

And does he still sing

From the heart and not

Merely the lips?

Does he still know himself?

…….Or, has spring progressed

To autumn,

And the shadows turned grey

And the embers within

Dimmed out with the years?

Has innocence turned

To cynicism,

Ravaged by time?

Have the bright lights

Finally ebbed?

Have the butterflies stopped flying

And the birds stopped chirping?

Is the sunlight less bright now?

And dawn a dull grey ?

Have the shadows taken over?

And has he lost himself

In this great big game of life?

I hoped not so,

I hoped from my heart,

I said it aloud.

He could not answer;

……Silence;

I looked at him

Through the darkening haze,

A flash of light,

Bright as day.

As I turned away,

I saw his face;

My eyes welled up, my friend;

It was Me.