Ideas

I was the lonely one in whom   

they swarmed in the millions.   

I was their creature and I   

was grateful. I could sleep   

when I wanted.

I lived a divided   

existence in sleepdreams   

that lit up a silence as dreadful   

as that of the moon. I have   

an overly-precise recall of

those solitary years before   

I opened the curtain and drew   

upon a universe of want that made   

me so strong I could crack   

spines of books with one hand. 

~Kathryn Starbuck