Pursued by the Denied

In the darkness, you hide, averse not to light,
But the light is where it resides.
And so, with abated breath, sharp as knives,
You wait, engulfed by an endless night.

“Will it ever leave?” You quietly wonder
As you watch the edge of light, debating.
You know it’s there, unseen, waiting
For your bulwark of darkness to be torn asunder.

You step into the light, apprehensive, half-blind,
You duck into swathes of darkness and dart past slivers of light,
Your breath, uneasy, your senses, heightened by fright.
But it pursues unwavering, infallibly right behind.

The patches of dark have dwindled, you desperate search, vain.
You run futilely, but it draws ever closer.
The pursuit, naught but a dance with your own shadow, is over.
It cannot be evaded, nor hidden from, nor slain.

And so, for the first time, you face it.
With a deep, shaky breath, you embrace it.

And then, there is peace.