The city sleeps carelessly
behind locked doors
because one man
has agreed to carry the dark.
He walks beneath failing lights,
a flashlight in his hand
small enough to understand
that some dangers cannot be outrun,
only endured.
At midnight,
even silence develops a heartbeat.
Every shadow becomes an unanswered question.
Every sudden noise
teaches his chest
the difference between caution
and fear.
Yet he continues
a man whose weariness
has learned to stand upright,
guarding structures
that will never bear his name,
protecting lives
that will never know his face.
By morning,
the city will button its shirt,
pour its coffee,
and walk past him
without a second thought
never pausing to consider
that exhaustion, too can wear a uniform
and still show up.
And still,
he will return the next night.
And the night after.
Standing faithfully
in the space between strangers
and whatever waits in the dark.
The city sleeps peacefully
because he does not.
But when fear finally finds him
when the shadows stop being metaphors
and the silence stops being still
who watches
the security guard
at night?
24/05/26
Ghana 🇬🇭
May 23
May 23, 2026 at 11:42 PM UTC
The city sleeps carelessly
behind locked doors
because one man
has agreed to carry the dark.
He walks beneath failing lights,
a flashlight in his hand
small enough to understand
that some dangers cannot be outrun,
only endured.
At midnight,
even silence develops a heartbeat.
Every shadow becomes an unanswered question.
Every sudden noise
teaches his chest
the difference between caution
and fear.
Yet he continues
a man whose weariness
has learned to stand upright,
guarding structures
that will never bear his name,
protecting lives
that will never know his face.
By morning,
the city will button its shirt,
pour its coffee,
and walk past him
without a second thought
never pausing to consider
that exhaustion, too can wear a uniform
and still show up.
And still,
he will return the next night.
And the night after.
Standing faithfully
in the space between strangers
and whatever waits in the dark.
The city sleeps peacefully
because he does not.
But when fear finally finds him
when the shadows stop being metaphors
and the silence stops being still
who watches
the security guard
at night?
24/05/26
Ghana 🇬🇭
I started with a question nobody asks.
We build systems to protect everything
except the people doing the protecting.
That contradiction wouldn’t leave me alone.
So I wrote toward it. Some people don’t protect you from the front page
they protect you from the dark, in silence, without a witness.
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