The Shadow

The darkness unnerves me still,
Its looming, dooming presence.
Threatening to abolish the light.
A pervasive, invasive fear.
Percolating in the shadows.
Do I dare venture?

Heart quickening, breath shortening.
I teeter on the brink of
Self-evacuation.
To run, to numb, to hide.
To retreat.

Back into the spaces,
The cracks of old wounds,
Past hurts,
Tantalizing me with their stories,
Convincing, rehearsed.
Discomfort residing in the comforts
Of this fear all too familiar.

But the light within beckons,
A mere glimmer, a glimpse
Into the blackness of the night.
Glittering over my half-closed eyelids.
A softening sweetness.

The lightness deepens, expands, widens.
But the Shadow remains.
Unavoidable.

The Shadow,
The dark side of the Moon.
In all her glory, she reflects her
Light toward Earth.
Our Mother.
Goddess of Love and Light.

The Shadow,
The other half,
The unseen. The obscure.
Without its presence,
Light dim and weak.

The Moon is both and,
Shadow and Light.
Dusk and Dawn.
Morning and Night,
Illuminating,
Intoxicating.

And somewhere in between,
The Space,
That holds both,
Deep in her bosom,
Nourishing, nurturing.
The infinite, unknown.

The Shadow,
Just as much a part,
Of her as is the Light.
The infinite capacity, spaciousness
To hold it All.
The Fear.
The Love.

The Shadow thirsts for the warmth,
Of Light.
To guide her home.

Nowhere to hide in the space,
Exposed and vulnerable,
But held.

Embraced as One,
They dance on into the darkness of Night,
Into the illuminating presence of the Moon,
All One.
Whole.
Complete.