All That Gleams in the Dark

A Poem

Photo by John Noonan on Unsplash

and it’s true
you have the world at your feet,
you have the hourglass at your beck and call,
you are time-defying in whims and manners.

and it’s true
i thought you gleamed in the dark,
but i wonder if you’re just sitting there
in a microcosm of pleasantries built from lies.

tell me —
do they smile at you in the ways
of true friends and admirers
or do they just stick to you like glue?

tell me —
do they matter to you in whims
of dark matter and white space,
or do they just fade away in glimpses?

because i’m wandering down a hallway
of faces unknown, of triumphs unseen —
but maybe all you wanted was a sycophant,
another person to applaud and appeal and adore.

because i’m little known in spaces,
and i’m little told in tales,
and i thought nothing was
and nothing ever would be.