Bad Poetry: Darkness and Light

This bit of free verse was suggested by https://poetsandstorytellersunited.blogspot.com/2023/03/friday-writings-69-darkness-and-light.html . 

"I love light!" exclaims

one of Catherine Marshall's characters.

"I hate the darkness."

Sometimes people seem to guess

how their stories are going to end.

But I was born on the cusp of sun signs

and for years I lived in Maryland

so I have been accused, not without reason,

of habitually sitting on every available fence.

The electronics set up on the screen porch

exude a chilly moonlike glow

that obviates all need for an overhead light.

I work at night.

Sometimes I nod or nap.

I can watch the road from here

more efficiently than from my bedroom

though I spend parts of some nights there too.

The trespasser I have been watching for

can't be sure whether I'm here or there,

asleep or awake.

It all looks the same from the road.

I enjoy this

until I realize:

he's not just sitting in his truck 

hoping I've gone to sleep if the computer has.

It's someone else's property being damaged now.

There is a larger application 

of a principle, of which this is an illustration,

for those who really want one.