Night Without

Ignorance was the blanket I used to block out the sky.
Is it hard to fathom why the outside terrifies,
The deepest, realest part of me? You see:
Night can never come too soon. It’s just enough
Of the light, of the knowledge to slowly show me
The truth of society’s consuming darkness –
Mind tricks and head games: merely symptoms of our illness.

But maybe there’s still hope, maybe I’ve only seen
A fraction of all; the portion I’d deemed obscene.
Night hides more than it reveals.
Without full exposure, full disclosure, full discourse – our full
Moon will never shine with anything but second hand truth
And if I don’t give a chance to the sun, our
Star, all too easy to cower from, will never enlighten me.

Jessie Gutierrez

Author’s note: So this is my play on a single acrostic. I love Confucius; it’s almost unbelievable that so much wisdom came from one man. He’s quoted in the bold.