Sometimes it needs to be very dark
before I can remember
I carry the sunrise inside me—
more blushing suggestion of light
than real brightness,
almost shy in its tenderness,
as if knows this palest pink is all
the light I am capable of meeting right now.
By noon, I could almost forget
such gentleness, but even then,
the softer light is there,
hiding in plain sight,
restrained, as if to remind me,
this quietly, this slowly
is how a new chapter
might begin.