sleeping awake in the shadow of the sun

we lived awake 
yet asleep
to the unknown 
waiting to unfold
​

night was comfort
bliss and myth
where truth hid
beneath rivers burning

at dawn
the sun raged 
blueness scattered
shards flung aside
as rivers too shared in fury.

when the sun receded 
chunks of sky
littered fields
huddled 
beside 
each broken star.

all the stars,
once messengers
of the treaty with the sun,
were shattered.

beautiful,
amidst their breaking,
forgotten peacekeepers
became hollow orbs

amber blue fusion
lit the sky
then faded to black
as the sun clawed away
its last gift.

coal indistinguishable from shale
raven and crow identical
grieved the guidance of stars
silent as rivers frozen

and there we slept 
- awake,
in the shadow 
of the sun.