Conversations in the dark

Dark night,
Silence and shadows…
Whispering breeze
And a person who sits, all alone;
Misty haze, as if thoughts,
Rise above.

I take a step
Through the shadows.
I ask him,
Is he thinking
Of what he has left behind?
Of what he was
Of what he is
No more?

The transition;
Simplicity to worldliness;
Pursuit of Heart to
Pursuit of Mind;
“Progress”……
Which has been attained;
Has it left a void somewhere,
My friend?

Do the birds still chirp?
Does dawn still bloom
In crimson red?
Does sunlight still come
Streaming through the morning window?
Does the child of five
Still run after
Bright butterflies in the sun
And glowworms by the moonlight?
Does he still believe in
Human goodliness
And that nothing
Can go wrong?
Does he still believe
In undying love?
Does he still believe
In innocence?

Is he still
Afraid of the dark?
Does he still know how to give
And not to ask?
The child of twelve;
Does he still know how to cry?
Does he still sing
From the heart and not
Merely the lips?

Does he still know himself?
…….Or, has spring progressed
To autumn,
And the shadows turned grey
And the embers within
Dimmed out with the years?
Has innocence turned
To cynicism,
Ravaged by time?

Has love’s labour
Finally been lost?
Have the bright lights
Finally ebbed?
Have the butterflies stopped flying
And the birds stopped chirping?
Is the sunlight less bright now?
Is dawn a dull grey now?

Has the child stopped crying
And the shadows taken over?
Has the Mind overtaken the Heart
And has he lost himself
In this great big game of life?
I hoped not so,
I hoped from my heart,
I said it aloud.

He could not answer;
……….Silence;
I looked at him
Through the darkness, haze
And the shadows.
A flash of light,
Bright as day.
And as I turned away,
I saw his face;
My eyes welled up, my friend;
It was Me.