Chosen
\nBy
\nJoseph Anthony Petro<\/p>\n
\nThe thing is
\nNo one believes me.
\nHow the fireflies dazzled their way
\nTo my back screen door, like
\nA galaxy spiraling towards me.
\nNo one believes their light
\nBecame so strong, so blinding
\nIt simply crossed the threshold
\nInto my kitchen, gathered me up
\nIn its arms, and lifted me outside
\nInto the night, and upwards, passed the trees,
\nHigher, into the clouds of moonlit angel hair,
\nAnd higher, to the stars,
\nWhere suddenly it let me go
\nAnd still I kept rising, and the mass of fireflies sang\u2014
\n(I didn\u2019t know fireflies sang),
\nAnd I rose to their shimmering chorus up,
\nUp until the moon grabbed me out of the sky
\nAnd swirled me over and over in her jet black hair
\nAs a spider tumbles a fly in a web,
\nAnd I laughed as she spun me, for her hair
\nWas soft as wind, and she sang like the fireflies
\nAn uncluttered lullaby\u2014pure, incandescent, like
\nRays of sunlight beaming through a morning forest,
\nAnd the more she wove, the more I could breathe,
\nAnd her song bathed around me every bit
\nAs softly as her hair, and when she finished,
\nAnd I had tumbled one last time
\nI found myself drifting to sleep in her satin shrouded arms,
\nAnd somewhere nearby I could see
\nThe fireflies forming a ring around us,
\nEncircling us in diamonds and glittering sapphires,
\nAnd I could feel her chest rise and fall
\nAs she too began to sleep,
\nAnd the dreams we had that night
\nWere unlike any I have ever had.
\nTo say they were resplendent
\nWould be putting it mildly\u2014they were dreams
\nOf pure, radiant light\u2014my mind and soul blazed
\nWith brilliance, sang with silver, rang with bells
\nOf crystal, and I knew things\u2014answers
\nTo things\u2014questions exploded like fireworks
\nAnd then drizzled towards me like
\nRibbons of fireflies\u2014because they were fireflies\u2014
\nEach and every one of my questions was a firefly,
\nEvery one of the answers was too,
\nAnd I knew right then and there,
\nAsleep in the arms of the moon,
\nGuarded by a legion of fireflies,
\nThat the world, no matter how dark,
\nNo matter how light, was made of light–
\nLight brighter than we could ever imagine, light
\nThat made the darkness darker so as to illuminate
\nThe way for angels carrying candles, light
\nThat made the sun seem playfully small,
\nLight that made my problems and their solutions become bubbles of dew,
\nAnd everything, everyone was the chosen one,
\nEvery atom, cell, strand of dancing DNA
\nWas chosen, and lit up from within
\nWith a heavenly darkness,
\nAnd loved beyond measure,
\nLoved beyond fear, loved beyond doubt,
\nLoved beyond the wildest passions
\nOne could ever hope for\u2014loved beyond belief.
\nI knew these things asleep in the arms of the moon.
\nAnd when I woke I was in my bed,
\nAnd when I stood I stumbled,
\nAnd when I stumbled I stayed on my knees
\nAnd thanked the moon, the fireflies, the stars,
\nAnd when I rose to go tell the world
\nHow the answers and the questions\u2014how
\nYour heart and my heart, your body and my body, your soul
\nAnd my soul, your mind and my mind, are all made of light,
\nHow we are all chosen, how we are all known,
\nAnd that the way to letting your light shine
\nIs to go, go through the darkness,
\nGo through the darkness
\nUntil you sleep in the arms of the moon, like
\nA baby–when I rose to tell the world
\nI heard you say, what good will it do?
\nIt\u2019s not about good, I replied. It\u2019s about knowing
\nThat somehow, someway we are all OK,
\nWe are all light destined for light, to hatch into light.
\nSo right now, in this place, in this moment in time and space,
\nTake my hand, and rejoice, and go, I said,
\nGo into the darkness\u2014
\nRun, stumble as I did, stumble for years if you have to, just go,
\nI will be by your side. Go until you see them\u2014
\nAngels carrying candles, fireflies lanterning the path,
\nThe moon opening her arms. Go.
\nGo and be loved by light swaddled in darkness until your own self-love
\nDawns like a summer morning in the night of your self-hate.
\nI know. You\u2019re right. I was wrong about what I said
\nAt the beginning. I know you believe me.<\/p>\n
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