Connor Colburn

Tyrant of Light

the small and innocent creature awoke,
surrounded by the shattered mirror of white
that walled around the vacuum of space
wherein the creature preyed upon the light.

stirred from its own blood-red insignificance
and stained by the waking of its foreign mind
like a flower reaching up and out of the hardened snow,
the creature clawed its gaze to light, the two now intertwined.

spinning slowly and forward, the creature’s thoughts
command a decrepit limb turn out toward the light,
its hollow hand and crooked finger stabbing slowly closer
to the violent effervescence, squeezing the creature with fright.

let me free, the light bellows with a volcanic crack.
doff this visor of clamored darkness from my eyes.
I see not, but know sure, that this is my dominion.
feel my brilliance pouring proudly from the skies.

the creature stretches up toward the pale glow, 
its cold and bony clutches rare and twisted,
brush against, then past, the brief space
between which the creature and light had not existed.

now, with a flash, radicals of light expand outwardly,
releasing the latches on the heavy shackles of wispy night
that once bound to this vacuous and crumbling landscape,
that same towering obelisk of unyielding light.

the creature stands without fear as the blast dissipates,
breathing deeply the warmth of life that now within resides.
the creature and the light were once two polar entities,
but now they’ve found a form in which they coincide.

---

Connor Colburn is a senior studying English at the University of Texas at Arlington. Minoring in Sound Studies, he plans to focus his writing exploring Bakhtinian concepts of voice and heteroglosia. Connor is an avid writer and chef, and he hopes that his curious creations may nourish the beautiful strangeness that resides inside us all.