I never knew how much I loved the light

until the dark awoke

and tore a terror, slow, inside my heart.

Not a stab of sudden fear.

The pulsing throb of confidence

that now the lights are off

they’ll always stay that way.

–

And in a little while at last I knew

the game had changed for good,

and innocence or ignorance

(they seem so much the same)

got gone the way of unicorns.

Replaced by perforated dreams

that rise and laugh at you.

–

Why O Jacob, do you now presume,

why turn and tell yourself,

“My way is hid from God, my hope ignored”?

And can you, looking, not perceive?

The endless God who never rests,

who stretched the midnight sky,

has stationed stars—for you.