Darkness and Light
By John Herlihy

The stars sparkle, the moon shines,
The celestial spheres turn silently in orbits,
The earth hums quietly amid the pines.
The light disappears into the darkness,
Playing havoc with the remnants of light,
Travelling light years to reach the moment
When the cloak of darkness covers the night.
The night envelopes half the world,
The other half is bathed in miraculous light,
A one-eyed man devouring everything in sight.

Who can account for the discrepancy
Between the illuminating light of the day
And the pervasive darkness of the night?
The one keeps the mystery of the unknown at bay;
The other fills our hearts with an uncanny fright.
The night slays the day without uttering a sound;
The day buries the night in total darkness underground.
Where it awaits the coming of the hour,
When it can crawl over the horizon like a magic flower,
To darken the world again with its strange, mysterious power.