Light or Dark?

We mark the balance

     of day and night,

Calling it Equinox, not Equilux,

     betraying from the start

Fixation on encroaching dark,

     not remaining light.

As darkness weighs in,

     and brightness deflates,

Some of us mark real change:

     a need for sleep

Or for battle, as sadness

     replaces the fleeing sun.

But for most the old celebration

     Has no meaning.

We’ve already used technology

     to beat back

The depth of winter

     and move summer indoors,

And perhaps for that reason  

     ignore other forces

Independent of Earth’s tilt

     or the sun’s distance.

Each of us makes decisions

     that lighten or darken us,

Individually or collectively,

     more than the seasons do.

Shall we choose the darkness

     of intolerance and fear?

Or celebrate the light

     of inclusion and creativity?

There are no natural forces

     pulling us either way.

Inside, where we’ve largely

      driven ourselves,

We make our own weather.

     We are our own seasons.

So, you, in there,

     Hunkered in the gloom,

Come out. Open up.

     Make the sunshine!

Charles B. Neff

September 21-22, 2013