Beauty in the Merging

I used to think light and shadow were separate:
One good, one bad.
Easy answers, but
isn’t it the harshest sunlight
that makes the starkest shadows?

Both extremes,
relying on each other.

I have seen the night sky painted soft velvet,
stars glowing light dreams,
a whisp away from eternity.
Clouds can diffuse heat,
refract light,
gentling the sky.

And is it not night and day joining
that forms sunrise and sunset,
turning the sun’s rays from knife to brush;
painting the sky delicate?

If the beauty is in the joining
and war in our separation,
should we not unite?

Light and dark coexist.
Why not the good and bad
of a human soul?

Who are we to call difference less?
Is it not the flaws of heroes
that forge them human?

Am I not human?
Am I not worthy

of respect?

© 2023 James Avery Fuchs