Alternatively, tonight the figure that ambles through miserable gray hues
Who watches through windows with green eyes,
And gazes upon those who stability and light inhabit,
Is none other than me.
These creatures, caged in walls of brick
Have vanished into dampened idealisms…
They are human beings.

Alternatively, tonight I observe this hollow Earth with an atypical ease,
As my insignificance is yet again proven,
Under its millions of cryptic stars.
Its crescent moon, their glorious king of the night,
Trails my every endeavor.
All my life I beg of this world,
One modest request.
Please, spare me only as much light as my neighbor—
Yet, this Earth owes me nothing
And feeds off neglecting pleas such as mine.

Alternatively, tonight I watch through the window of a warn-down cottage
As my neighbor hums unaccompanied
Drowning in the melodies of deep-rooted love
That transmits on beyond this Earth.
She is but ignorant, daily, to mortality.
A fallen hero once dwelled in her home,
Nevertheless, was uprooted many moons ago.
The stars have cycled since, mocking his expiry,
And I blame them for his cruel demise.
My neighbor… she does not. She cannot.
So the stars, in their grandeur, shine lightly over her home,
Where they glimmer and gleam each disheartening night,
But she is unconscious of the gift she is already given
And wordlessly pleads “more, more.”

Alternatively, tonight she sits around a fire
And burns the mementos of the man she loves
Just to keep her house warm,
And more, to satisfy these stars so they continue to reign above her.
She shouts as the ashes dissolve into nothing,
Merciless screaming, audible for miles.
She sits, alone in a fully lit house
And she is truly left with nothing… nothing but the stars.

Yet, this is what she, and all of this sun-less Earth, willingly sacrifices every day,
As the stars shine famously over every inch of those who show devotion.

I venture back home, and from my balcony,
I stare at the world critically,
Finally seeing it for authenticity.
Lack as I may of the stars’ shimmer,
And lack as I may of their radiant, illusive shine,
I refuse to be governed by their demanding manipulations.

Alternatively, tonight the stars do not decide my fate, I do,
And as I leap from my balcony, I catch a final glimpse of them.
I know confidentially that I am a martyr.
And as I face the Earth in one final trembling breath,
I know confidentially that despite my descending,
For the first time… I am above the stars.