chiaroscuro

As a kid I lived in books

in the words between the lines

I loved the characters with souls that crook’d-

neither devils nor heroes, but harder to define.

.

Perhaps they gave to me a mirror, a light.

Perhaps I saw in them myself, and as I grew,

my own identity printed neither black nor white

and in most things I took a nuanced view.

.

Now all or nothing is the norm,

as the world grows darker than before.

Purity testers come out in swarms

saying ‘you’re good or you’re evil, this is war’.

.

I won’t take part; I’ll bide my time in waiting for the day

when our own shadows remind us we’re all made in shades of gray.