Indifferent Light

The sun will still rise,
and us to meet it.

We take turns
leading and trailing
over the course of many seasons,

first one,
then the other,
shuffles becoming steps,
leading us to do as we must,

our fate
unfolding at the next bend;

we blend
into the curve
as if its contours
were already felt,

bracing
as asphalt drops away
beneath us towards impenetrable mist,

unflinching are we,
barreling through haze at earth-speed.

Ready or not,
the universe unfolds before us
as we play our parts, grappling
with our place within it,

but travel long enough
and boundaries blur and vanish,
revealing we were all one and the same.

The sun has never risen,
and spinning towards and from its
life-giving and cancerous light,
no different are we.

---

Written for NaPoWriMo Day 6 Prompt:

“This prompt, which comes from Holly Lyn Walrath, is pretty simple. As she explains it here:

‘Go to a book you love. Find a short line that strikes you. Make that line the title of your poem. Write a poem inspired by the line. Then, after you’ve finished, change the title completely.’

I encourage you to read Walrath’s full post, which has some other ideas for generating new poems based on pre-existing text.”

NaPoWriMo Day 6 Prompt

The line I used is “History has failed us, but no matter.” This is the opening line of the historical novel, Pachinko, by Min Jin Lee. It’s a gripping opening, similar to “It was the best of times; it was the worst of times,” and the novel more than lives up to its thesis statement, becoming my favorite book in 2020.