Blackout

Or silence
That shouts its truth
At night
Without your being there.

I hate ghosts
And summer shadows
Over roads
Opaque as glass,

Dark skies
And storms
Severing lines,
That prolong a dark impasse.

Nothing prepared me
For this austerity—
To deny myself
And hide my need;

There’s a lie
That gives life,
And lamentably, a lie
Meant to deceive;

And then there’s my lie
Of false hope,
Spawned simply
So I can breathe…

In myths and dreams
I fan my needs
With sparks
That kindle love,

And struggle nights
To understand
The hidden plans of God.