The Darkness About You Poem by John Tansey

Darkness surrounds you

as spirals of smoke

wrapping you in myth

and the delineated danger

of the world.

But your proud defiance

breaks through with gestures

and chiseled features

in a dalliance with the heavy air.

Tilting your head

out of shadow in to the scant light

you flirt with a foreboding

a newport in your hand

you speak in a trepid voice

of your own mortality.

such a crumbling beauty

leaning forward in a red skirt

wisps of black tendrils shade your eyes

your frailty in your sensuality

but you are still the motherly moon

scared but proud

to hold up a starless sky