Intrinsic Light and Darkness
Eigengrau*
Layered mirrors reflect
to amplify brain gray light
as the daughter of loneliness
cries in the night among the ruins
The darkness escalates
the small ji sounds
of the whispers of worms,
as I offer my eyes
to the dungeons
of the sixteenth night.
*Eigengrau (German for “intrinsic gray”, also called Eigenlicht (Dutch and German for “intrinsic light”), dark light is the uniform dark gray background color that many people report seeing in the absence of light.