Artificial Lights
Artificial lights burn brighter
Than the dim moon
A solitary pale fighter,
Faded on dune
Light energy thrums through this city
Casting the heavens away
Billboards scream in colors so busy
Brighter than sunlight of day
Air hums with circuits and static
Glass towers swallow the night
As fireflies fade in the attic
Memories traded for light
Where is the hush of the meadow,
Soft glows in the quiet of trees?
Where are the rivers of shadow,
Lit only by whispers on leaves?
I dream of a dark that is golden
Soft moonlight that dances on stone
Of nights where the wild emboldens
And silence is something we own
But street lamps and storefronts
stain sand with amber light
As their signs creak and grunt,
White tungsten touches the tide
But, beyond, breakers are falling
And the ocean fights to be free
The tide keeps churning and sprawling
That is the place calling to me
Oh, let nature reclaim every heart
Let ivy swallow all steel beams
Let roots split rough asphalt apart
And let starlight weave brand new dreams
That is my mind’s only wish,
To swim as free as a fish,
And never to give up, never to cave,
To drift away from the glow of the grave
For the brighter it burns, the smaller we grow,
Choking on embers of neon’s cruel glow.
Drowned in the haze of a world set alight,
Falling like moths in the dead of the night.
Amalia Houff is a senior at Virginia Wesleyan pursuing her bachelors of science in biology and her minor in Marine Science. She is passionate about the arts, and can be found writing, drawing, reading, sculpting and listening to or creating music when not in the forest or in the lab.