To be worthy of the dark

I never felt myself worthy

Of standing under the sun.

I knew the warmth belonged

Only to those granted permission.

People like me knew to keep

Our places in the shade.

Protected, untouched, and unsettled.

Until I was finally pushed

Beyond my comfortable patch

Of humble - yet unforgiving - solitude

And my skin felt this new sensation

Of being whole.

In disbelief of my ever being worthy,

I traverse the boundary

Between light and dark,

Knowing one is where I belong,

And one is where I had hoped to be.

Every day, the sun sets:

Equal without our shadows,

Enter the night with me.