I stare with empty eyes
at twinkling stars pasted in the black,
shivering with blue cold – my demise
alone, not wanting to go back.
Oh! This eternal night.
How long shall it last?
This my forever plight,
dread, future and past.
At my end, yet in the east
a hook of orange life does rise
to fill my soul with oh sweet peace,
for this shall always be our prize.
This poem opens in the singular first person to a protagonist in the dead of night, a metaphor for the darkest depths of depression. Those in such a fraught state don’t want to go back to the way life used to be because it feels like life has always been this way. This idea is captured in the second stanza with phrases like “eternal night” and “forever plight”. The last stanza expresses that truth that if we hold on, the sunrise (life) will always follow the night (depression). Further, it illustrates that the very essence of our being will experience peace through the use of the word “soul” versus the use of the word “heart” which is more mortal and transient. Finally, the last line switches to the plural first person to demonstrate that while this was my personal experience, it is possible for all those in the midst of darkness to find peace.
Lucas Wolfe
Author