That part of me was mere outside,
not inner state,
you thought you knew; a cloak to hide
our human fate.
Perhaps behind the thin veneer
the sky was blue;
its light was blocked, though calm and clear,
from shining through.
Was there a troubling change, which showed
that in my soul,
invisible to me, there glowed
a fiery coal?
Here in the husk which outlives flame
I take my stance.
The flicker in me has a name:
my ignorance.
The shadow that perhaps you see
has weight, is true.
If I could rip the shade from me
I’d give it you.