The lights
Are going
Out.
Slow but sure.
My life is a city
My body
Is a city
Traffic stops and starts
Pumping blurred light through my veins
Webs of
Streets
My bones
Are twinkling skyscrapers
My skyline
Jagged
But blazing neon.
I stand at the center
Of a city
Spread like a galaxy on the night-black earth
But
The lights
Are going
Out.
The day you turned away
The outskirts of my life
Began to dim
Blink
Blink
Blink
Somebody's throwing switches
In a lonely tower
Outside of town
And darkness eats the map
From the outside
In
First the spattering of streetlights on the edges
Goes dark
And then
The outskirts
Convenience stores and billboards
Bridges
Then the boroughs
One by one
Blink
Blink
Blink
It's coming for me
And I see it.
I stand at the center of a dying
Constellation
Of a city
Under siege
I stand and watch the lights go out
Far away
Closer
Closer
Closer
Street by street
Building by building
Day by day
The lights
Are going
Out
And I
Have never been scared
Of the dark
But this
This is new
This is blackness growing steady
Street by street
Between me
And you
Between me
And everyone I've ever met
And I
Am
Afraid
Of that
Dark,
Scared like a child
And
I'm not sure what to do
Because
The lights
Are going
Out.