Pride of the Light

First Published in Poetry Quarterly

An innocent sparkle, of gleaming luminosity
Who glitters feebly, a pinprick source
Of beauty and light
Who bestows upon the earth the treasures
Of guiltless radiance and delicate confidence

Overshadowed by her fiery, powerful brother
She lives at night, when the former goes down
Taking with him illumination and certainty,
Leaving behind the threatening void of darkness
Which she can rarely fill completely
Much to her utter despair

Never appreciated, always hidden
By shrouds of mist, by tendrils of clouds
That serpentine across the tapestry of the sky
Weakening her silvery, passionate efforts
To live up to the golden domination of her brother

She would twinkle against the midnight sky
Until the rays of dawn approached, enervating her soul
Seeping away her fervent energy,
Sapping away her aura of docility, of allure, of enigma
That had been gifted to her by the shining heavens
So that she may provide natural light to the creatures
That dwelled on the earth

So, as the sky grew in its power, her angelic glister
Dissipated into the glimmering dust
Of hopelessness and sorrow
Never to be reclaimed