Show Me Your Darkness
By John Herlihy

Your inner light lies there before me easy to see,
Mingled with moon glow between you and me.
Every smile and every touch a kind of generosity.
I know you give yourself as a natural propensity,
Your beauty wears the garments of faith and virtue.
Your love exudes the floral smells of exotic perfume,
Your truth lies about you as an embroidered drapery;
You give yourself to me as an act of perfect slavery.
I feel humbled in the shadow of your pure mystery;
I have come to appreciate our intertwined destiny.

Now may I turned to an idea of unintended harshness,
Lift the diaphanous veil and show me your darkness.
Behind your every smile and touch lies a dark cloud,
Erroneous feelings that cling like a thickening shroud.
We are imperfect beings, but shadows behind the light,
For every act of goodness, we struggle through the night.
Happiness may surge within us, then followed by despair;
Sorrow and misery sing a dirge of hardship beyond repair.
If you speak of your unhappiness, I will consider it a gift;
Pieces of your heart like nuggets of gold we carefully sift.

Show me your darkness, in addition to showing your light;
Fear not to reveal what all know; we live by day and night.