night's shadow

she walks carefully
into night's shadow

the darkness will not catch up
if she falls asleep quickly

she allows her head to sink
with a quick desperation
into her pillow

eyelids squeezed close

to forget the dusty, broken shelves
that remain uncleaned and in disrepair

she tries to pretend
that she doesn't care...
not enough to move ahead
but something about
a building that smells like a sewer
makes her feel a bit dead

a bit filled with a vague dread

in the morning, she will rise
with sun, and breathe in the dawn
and know that life is beautiful

and her beauty and her life is not vague,
is not tarnished by her environment,

she will rise like the sun
she will overcome