What if there was a light that
burned always—

one that pushed out the dark and let us
move into its steady warmth?What if there was a light that
burned always—

one that pushed out the dark and let us
move into its steady warmth?

Pretend that light is in your room, living
with you. One day you find it under your bed

where it’s resting between old shoeboxes full of photographs
and notes from an old lover, one that you promised

you would wait for but never married. What if
that light, when you looked dead into it,

held the face of your father? And there you are,
eye to eye with a man who made you.

He made a promise in his creation
—to wait for you—

and for a while he did. But now you are grown
and don’t need him the way you used to.

Instead you feel the need to be freed from him.

That is when the light begins to fade out and you are left—
you and your father, sharing a moment of darkness.

David Harrity is a writer from Kentucky. His work has appeared in or is forthcoming from issues of New Southerner, The Minnetonka Review, and The Xavier Review. “Where Shadows Come From” was originally published in the Pushcart nominated and Kentucky Literary Award winning chapbook “Morning and What Has Come Since” published by Finishing Line Press, 2007.

Spring, above, by Swiss photographer and artist Myostis.