Maldives: a Surplus of Light
It’s so bright on these islands
it feels like they must be nightless,
that with just 24 hours to a day,
there’s more than enough light
to go around.
The light floods water,
making it disappear,
so boats levitate,
their anchor lines making them
look like realistic
boat-shaped balloons.
There is so much light,
it spills over into your body
and floods its innermost recesses,
so that the dark inside
is pushed out,
made homeless,
and has to take up
temporary residence
on your skin.
And the more time you spend there,
the more light your body drinks,
and the more darkness
is evicted from within it.
You spend a week, two, on these islands,
looking more like the locals by the day,
until you reluctantly go home,
where the air
isn’t overcrowded with light
and there’s space for the light in you
to drain back out gradually,
so the dark that’s been camping
on your skin can
finally seep back inside your body.
No place like home,
the shadows sigh happily.
Not necessarily how you feel,
your mind still in a place
where there is a surplus of light.
Copyright © Bernard Chan | Year Posted 2017
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