Shared Illumination

Do you wish to be a sun in our lives?
Rekindling warmth and vitality in tired limbs and spirits,
summoning the body’s energy,
its will to move again?

It would be cruel and selfish
to ask that you not share your light with others—
you are a beacon of love, after all.

You can be a sun for me,
and still I know it will not be all sunshine—
not because you are absent.
You are always there,
existing equally,
even in moments of pitch-blackness.

My tears, like rain, shed light at times.
At others—downpour.
You never hide behind heavy clouds,
never pretend invisibility,
never deny that you and the darkness coexist.

Some cannot accept that duality.
I do not care who will argue it.
In fact, I invite the debate.

Shared understanding
is another form of light—

and love.

Let murmurs become thunder,
and lightning strike.

Author Bio:

Elizabeth Kaye is a medical student at the University of Central Florida College of Medicine and a graduate of Harvard College. She has worked as a counselor in the Personality Disorder Unit at McLean Hospital, as an aide and companion for hospice and memory care patients, and as a volunteer facilitator of expressive arts with children. Outside of medicine, she finds creative restoration through poetry, mixed media art, and dancing.