Take Back the Dark

by Jennifer Adam

Take back the dark:

Clutch a star-stained mantle of stillness

In fingers cold and white with wanting;

Wrap a cloak of shadows like a shroud

Around your shoulders and tuck your dreams

In pockets deeply lined with memory,

A brooch of fancy fastened at your throat.

Take back the dark:

Stride down lanes of silent, shuttered houses

Where mists of forgetting sweep across the sea of sleep;

Glide from streetlamp pool to porchlight puddle

Wearing boots of borrowed time.

Take back the dark:

Press your palms against silvered stone

And feel the broken beat of midnight’s pulse

Echo in the empty hollow between your blood and humming bones.

Rise and dance like a moth around a bonfire flame

To the secret song of cinder-sparks and wishes,

Casting spells that climb like smoke on the midnight wind.

Take back the dark:

Defy the dreary daytime glare

Of shuttered hopes and superstition

To rule the night like a witch queen might

When she claims her moonlit throne.