Light

Sometimes at night
as I lie in bed with
my head overflowing with
feelings and happenings and songs that
have made their way to replaying over and over in
my brain,
I turn my attention right side out and back to the real world
and

I peek out of the shade-free strip of window where I
can't close it because of the tiny plant I forget
to water
and

the darkness glows with
the backyard light that
someone flicked on so they could
see the dog running around, full of energy,
as I lie in the darkness and wait for sleep to find me
and

I know that somewhere
a staircase and
a few rooms away
someone who loves me exists.

I wish we all had that.
A little light, a little nudge to
whisper in our ears that
however dark the world may be,
someone who cares is there.

I wish no one had to
stumble in the darkness of a tunnel that
is too twisty and turny to
see through its walls of
stone

swim deep down in an ocean of worries
eyes squeezed shut
the distance to the surface
unknown

blindly grasp onto
the slippery belief that maybe
perhaps
possibly
they weren't
alone.