Mary Lynne Evans
In the
Dark
The pure concept of darkness...is...a path leading
back to the profound mystery of the Origin.
--Cirlot: The Dictionary of
Symbols
Outside, the darkness silvers
my window into a mirror.
I, floating in a pool of light,
see myself looking at myself,
and think of the snake eating its own tail.
Around and around light buoyant as water,
the night, the woman, the snake.
In the morning's gilding
of the pane, I see only wisteria,
calla lily, Japanese maple, the hedge.
My dog struts after the grey squirrel
who will run under the ivy just
in time, the same each morning.
Such clarity, the early light.
It takes night to impress the chaos beginning
within me.
Copyright 1996, Mary Lynne Evans
Mary Lynne Evans' poetry has appeared most recently in Stop doing that!;
Paper Boat; and the Red Sky Poetry Theatre's anthology, Nobody's
Orphaned Child (Red Sky Poetry, 1996). She works as a land-use planner
and lives in Seattle.