The cancer of light spreads through the healthy darkness. It shines to reveal there will be no reconciliation. Will he go his way and she go hers? It’s not that simple. Even if they were walking parallel it would still be at a horizontal distance.

The light destroys the beautiful lies by exposing them. It erases hope. It stings his eyes and hurts his head. It inspires sorrow and makes him run toward the happy shadows. Could he please have the mystery back? Could he please not know so much?

He knows that, for him, she will forever be locked in eternal youth. She will be his secret haven to return to when he forgets what it was like to be young and safe. When the insecurity of old age takes him over and he realizes that time is a terminal disease, when he knows love to be his greatest challenge, when looks back and doesn’t know why he was so sure of himself, he’ll think of her. She will unlock all those things that he once was. She is the representation of anything good in his life.

Why can’t he reach the light switch? He pulled at the string, but it snapped off. He tried to turn the bulb and loosen it, but it burnt his fingers. He took a bat and tried to smash it, but it was too strong, or he was too weak. He can’t stop the light. He can’t even dim it.

He closes his eyes. He lives in red dim blindness. It still burns, it still hurts, but he can’t really see the light. He stumbles around, knocks things over, stubs his toe. He can’t make a sandwich. He drives himself off the road. He is lost.

He needs to face it. He needs to open his eyes and see what has been illuminated. He must understand what it is that is killing him, destroying him, causing his loss. When he does, all he sees is himself. He is forced to look directly at himself in a flood of unforgiving light.