Black

by Daniel Jonathan Knight

Black—coal fire and smoke—toroidal halo
thoughtful, quiet, bleak
unfettered

Black—raven and bear and mamba
cunning and agile

coffee black—cola black—coal
tar to drink
hot, destructive
yet, mornings, days, cities, awake
build atop them

night—midnight—hour of striking clock
hour of apparition, roused from sleep
or never yet sleeping

black, film-noir—gritty, full of twist
clandestine contradiction, belying inner light—absorbed

Fade to black—eyes slowing, gently closing
rest or sleep or death or birth
birth to death—from black to black
eyes quickening,
then gently closing

Achromatic—owing to absorption of almost all incident light
memory of waking stars—canvas of living stars
twinkling—propounding radial spectrum

or collapsed
into infinite singularity

mysterious vesture, Shrouded
Absorbing light—look deeper
can you see it? Look Deeper
the light is inside—absorbed
held silently within