Cold wonderings ***** at my back, and I
slide my hand, with a palm heated from another night,
across my bare skin.
I’m learning to love myself when no one else can,
and at least, for a moment,
forget whose door I just walked out of.

Let me be light, let me be light tonight.
Let this path be my air, my destination a distant sight.
Consider a rooftop, where I can see the pale moon,
hiding between the Twin Towers’ ghosts.
Maybe it can goad this artificial light
out of my cold
tile home.

Let me be light, let me be light tonight.
Let my heart be as hollow as the shining white knight.
This concrete, it screams—what song does it sing?
I am tired of sleeping with burnt eyes and lost dreams.

My shoes feel so heavy in my hand,
but the gravel has numbed my bare feet’s skin,
and I whisper to you, my poet in hand,
let me be light, let me be light for you.