A Poem in Response to “Vertical Light”

“I am darkness”

When I am with you, I move like your shadow

I am quiet when you are loud, indecisive so you decide

I am gasoline to your fire, the frame to your art

I am darkness so that you can be light

I am darkness so that you can be light

I am darkness so that you can be light?

Since when did I allow you to take the sun from my eyes?

And let you mistaken my silence for incompetence?

One day I will not be your night sky.

One day I’ll ignite, swallow your light,

bleed into the universe like watercolors

and expose you — you who stands hidden in daylight.

• Nardine