Poetry
Dead Leaves: Alone I Reach to Watch the Light Away
A Sestina
Dear Ones, I’ve been so alone —
I’ve taken to joining hostile shadows to watch
through the night. In the morning even they leave
muttering and hissing as they slope away,
under the creeping trails cast by dawn light.
I call after, but my voice doesn’t reach.
I’ve sent out letters and cries to reach
for help, but had no way to address “alone”.
How can you reach beyond the light
you know, you cannot keep the watch
if you do not understand how to be away
or how to seek a better way to leave.
I have even welcomed that time to leave,
when those hostile shadows stretch and reach,
but do I belong or will I be turned away?
As if the hours know how to make me alone —
let me cower and shudder beneath their watch:
in every corner, I will know an absence of light.
Do I belong then in the shadow, not the light?
If I choose to hide in the dark how will I ever…
