Stranger Again

Written with Grace Meinke

Of darkness and sound and smell

Was he, trapped in the pigments

Of wrong-ness, of bad influence.

A two-dimensional presence--

Yet somehow more an absence.

Sharply silky against the skin;

Tugs at the hair, the gut.

Addictive and unsettling.

It hurts to be happy sometimes.

Yet the moon only shines in darkness,

And he is the sky, the stars

Surrounded by full blooming black.

He makes you wonder if it is

Worth it to bare the Night,

To watch his light form

Constellations around you.

Soon, chased away by the sun,

Warmth is your reminder,

And suddenly time has been lost--

The Earth won't stop spinning,

the galaxies change

And suddenly,

He is a Stranger again