before a troubled dawn,
or perhaps a lustful dusk,
glazing irises watch
as the skies illuminate dust.

each entity so restless in life
but hopelessly idle in whole,
and to flames, moths obsess,
the way the old phrase goes.

i was leaving everything behind me.
away, a past that i was afraid to give a name,
and therein lay a less feeble version of myself,
one too dangerous to know shape nor shame.

in my truth there was absolute impunity:
a bliss born amidst bouts of regret and pain,
yet in that past, i became fond of the figures
and attached to the clouds that brought rain.

but here i am still, before a night sky of departure,
in mellow revelation, off far my eyes stared
where masses of dust broke apart silver waves,
and the dark encrypted the skies i've come to bear

but through this encryption, this supposed mask,
was in actuality an authentic face unveiled
where the universe could smile gently
through specks of drying cosmic tears derailed.

in frolicking youth, i thought the sun and moon
followed me through the whole earth, endless.
with age, i've found they were truly indifferent
simply symbols of my mind to quell my loneliness.

yet the sun never stopped shining, even through the night,
and was but a mere star amongst galaxies vast.
as such, there were other magnetic blazes like mine.
ones that did not bring day, but revived its past

so was i, a soul in purgatory, but another moth?
struggling for beaming strands of hope?
so was i, a broken shard of glass, but a speck of dust?
only reflecting selfless hopes as means to cope?

as the universe at its unpredictable core expands
i fear only more the vastness, the growing cracks
between the earth and the rest of humanity
where stars avoid eyes, and the moon our grasp

where the speed of light becomes inadequate,
time is no longer made, and names become unused
where constellations dissipate into old nonsense
as erosion does away to memories of light, diffused

when underwater whispers of memories surface,
and their breaths die out with the atmosphere,
when loneliness overcomes the whole of the night,
and all old anticipations become utter fear

the day space becomes empty due to being too full of itself,
the way stars dull and die behind the curtains of streetlights,
these souls, they grow so much farther in space,
yet even if unseen, i know they shine, day or night

these souls, they breathe life into those who they touch
and in turn, parting becomes a ceremony of grief.
too often, stray starlight illuminates meek forms
its origin long dead, its soul finally released

however all the more empowering in its halted vibrance,
its light, a faint memory and hushed whisper, remains,
even through the midst of the world's refusal to stop,
echoing hope by renewing legacies and pains

so perhaps i can leave,  leave with my past behind
so long as a single star shines, my path is set.
those fond memories of pain and joy alike
are carried with me within my every breath

and as the distance grows, they shine still
even out of sight, yet never out of mind
my departure becomes another arrival between constellations.
and every entity glows wherever starlight shines

and i find myself drawn to these flames again.
emerging from a long night is a new dawn:
the rising sun: a sign that i can leave
with peace and grief hand in hand,
despite daylight’s shroud, the stars are never truly gone