It was morning before I knew you
Bright yellow sunshine breaking through the old weathered curtains
Of my mind and the way
I woke up to the intoxicating scents of a new day drifting in
Drifting over me, cleansing me whole and revealing
A sparkling bright world outside the walls I'd built up and around my own
Home, and when I did choose to step outside
There was nothing like discovering a whole bustling city
That had been awake and breathing
All along, just beyond
My front door.

It was noon when I met you, knowing nothing like
A rousing lunch, a taste of something that
Makes you remember the bright electric afternoon
Lying out before you and promising to take you
A good three steps down whatever path you chose to take
That particular day, because what would ever be more worth remembering
Than the first golden day of one's life?

It was creeping up on two o'clock when I started to
Know you
To feel you, to stroll to your beat, and the way
That the sunshine still danced in the sky may have had something to do
With the way your shadow seemed to carry no
Weight and beside it
Mine glided on air.
And perhaps if we'd paused for a moment to consider this world so far from
My doorway, we'd have discerned
That I could no longer trace the path back to the place
I was so distressed to leave behind
That morning.

It was late afternoon when I loved you,
Blazing sun sinking low into the sky and my mind
Sinking low into yours, finding places to nestle my nightmares that I couldn't quite
Comprehend, having never seen a sunset,
Quite like this before.
And if I could trace you down to the slants on that deep city pavement
I would capture you there, I would hold you forever
Beneath the weight of your wings and the depth of the fire that burned on
In the sky and the sound of my heart
To your beat
To the cracks in the pavement
That hollowed me out in a way
I was not expecting
Quite yet.

It was a fine-dining restaurant soaked in the dimly lit
early evening hour
Where I left you,
Feeling strangely infatuated with the way this city lit up
Beneath a shallow blue mockery of something I tried to call
The moon.
And the evening rose up to unfurl before me, cooing promises
Of worlds I had not fathomed in the sunlight hours of
A day that had never been my own
Until I chose to pursue a thief who called himself the
Night.

It was late by the time I found home,
Arduously navigating the winding roads that
Beat on my soles as I traced my way back.
And perhaps there was something too chilling about the silence that encompassed
This room that I used to wake up in
Was it only this morning?
And as I crawled through the doorway I could feel the violation of the nighttime creeping up, creeping under
My skin.
And so tonight I draw the curtains tightly closed
Old and weathered and perhaps
They will devour enough of the sunshine tomorrow
That I will not have to wake up quite so early to face
A whole new tainted morning
Quite this soon.