When a hurricane sends

Winds far enough north

To put our power out,

We only think of winning

The war bodies wage

To prove the border

Between them isn’t real.

An act of God, so sweet.

No TV. No novel. No

Recreation but one

Another, and neither of us

Willing to kill. I don’t care

That I don’t love my lover.

Knowing where to stroke

In little light, knowing what

Will happen to me and how

Soon, these rank higher

Than a clear view

Of the face I’d otherwise

Flay had I some training

In combat, a blade, a few

Matches. Candles are

Romantic because

We understand shadows.

We recognize the shape

Of what once made us

Come, so we come

Thinking of approach

In ways that forgo

Substance. I’m breathing —

Heaving now —

In my own skin, and

I Know it. Romance is

An act. The perimeter

Stays intact. We make out

So little that I can’t help

But imagine my safety.

I get to tell the truth

About what kind

Of a person lives and who

Dies. Barefoot survivors.

Damned heroes, each

Corpse lit on a pyre.

Patroclus died because

He could not see

What he really was inside

His lover’s armor.

I find this poem very moving to the struggles each of us face at some point in our lives through different ways. "We understand the shadows" This line hit me like a ton of bricks.  It is true, we do understand the shadows. So many times there are shadows in our lives, places of darkness, where there is no light, places of sadness and grief, pain and suffering that have shaped our lives into what they are today.  Maybe we experience the shadow and find the strength somewhere to move on.  Maybe we experience the shadow and become marred and there is an ever present dark tent to our lives because of it.  Maybe we experience the shadow and stay there, not because we have to, but because we cannot find a way out of the darkness.  For in the shadows, we cannot see clearly.  We try to run to get out of it, but we run into a wall.  We get up and try to run again, and another wall.  We fall down, but still get back up, slightly bruised.  We start to run again, only now we have a slight limp from the fall.  We run into yet another wall, but we hit the ground and try to jump over this wall, only to fall harder.  We try this again and again and again, each time trying different tactics that we are so sure will work.  Each time getting slightly more bruised, gaining more scars.  Finally, when we are tired, exhausted from all the attempts, we decide to just sit on the ground and look up.  As we see a slight glimmer of light, we decide to rise up. Curious, we continue to gaze at this beautiful sight.  We have been in darkness for so long, could this really be a light a possible way out, where is it coming from.  Just then, a hand appears!