Out of Darkness Comes Light

By Tony Colatruglio

Their mission is no less the fate of humanity itself. A junkie down on her luck, a tycoon on a death trek through a desert, a professor who says science has an answer for everything, and a crippled athlete who has lost his will to live. But how can they triumph?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tony Colatruglio
• Release date: Dec 6, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463766224

Tony Colatruglio

So much to say, so little the time; but live fictive worlds in winged rhymes.

Book preview

Out of Darkness Comes Light: A Poem

by

Tony Colatruglio

Copyright 2019

Smashwords Edition

I. Seal

i. Flashing Yellow

Along your loft apartment’s wall,

grimy and black,

golden light in a spiraling sphere appears.

Although it’s long since dawn,

the curtains on your windows are drawn.

These days, their perpetual position.

On your threadbare mattress,

lying half-naked and alone in a fading pall of cigarette smoke,

you hesitate to look, because lately,

you’ve been beset by a series of misfortunes, adding to your list of miseries—

losing your keys, cutting your hand (an entry point?), and nearly getting hit by a car.

All of this made worse by your out-of-the blue, Jekyll-and-Hyde mood swings.

You hardly recognize yourself lately.

Now this, whatever this is.

And as the circumference of that sphere widens,

and its light intensifies, you’re truly taken aback;

for you recall fleeting images of a shadowy figure in black

who you swear—you swear—has been stalking you on the streets at night.

He—it—seems to be capable of anything.

But this?

Like the plague, you’ve been avoiding the alleys where the shadows run the deepest.

Not just coming out of Asmodeus—your favorite haunt—but The Night Owl, too.

Palpable feelings that someone—something—is on the prowl…and after you.

What can you do?

Call the police?

Yeah, right.

What a predicament.

The spiral light intensifies.

What the hell is it, you ask, exhaling smoke and squinting,

for that light’s too bright for your over-sensitive eyes,

which have grown accustomed to a lamp’s dull, steady bulb these past few days

as you’ve been cooped up in another drugged-out haze, not feeling up to the streets.

Oh, the irony, for you are the quintessential night owl.

But you’re oblivious to the fact that your bloodshot eyes have been flashing yellow, dear.

Yes, flashing yellow, a warning sign of greater dangers ahead for you,

but you’re too blind to see.

But that’s all about to change, thankfully,

as that luminous sphere picks up speed.

ii. Frazzled

The air’s redolent of stale smoke and alcohol;

and… what’s that…a little body odor?

When was the last time you had a shower?

Uncleanliness is yet another warning sign.

If only you could see.

And boy does your breath ever stink,

as plaque and coffee and nicotine and crack