INTO AN EPIPHANY OF PHOSPORESCENCE

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I am scared
Of this howling storm of
The middle of the night
Which has thrown me
Overboard
Into this sea of endless worry
Where there is no
Just down the hall
Mom and dad
To reach out for
And no night light
Like the one which once upon a time
Whispered to me
In the secret language of childhood 
that I wasn’t alone
As long as there was 
incandescence
And prayer.

But in these 
Ides of March
Despite my faith
In things like the wind
And seeds which are sown
The light
Without so much as a sailor’s warning has
forsaken me
Cracking my winter heart
Like ice
And turning the path that I have been on
For as long as I can remember
Into the road
less taken.

Which makes me feel
Like those boys in the Civil War
Who
As their flesh
Was crucified
By rounds of ammunition
Cried out for their
Mothers
And fell to the ground
Into an epiphany of phosphorescence
Which later
At night
Glowed like a night light
Which would ultimately
Send them to glory.


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