The knock never comes at night

or in misty, black-robed visitation

No threatening, hideous apparition

bids me recoil and flee

Rather it arrives with charm

a suggestion of beauty

the intoxicants of the powerful

and temptation’s indeterminable edge

 

It hints at vindication

and speaks soothingly of understanding

I struggle to name it

But it knows me

and I welcome the comforting whisperings of compromise

its sensible perspective on consequence

and marvel at the ease of falling in step

again

 

Perhaps it is by some act of grace

something transcending my desire or knowledge

that I see past the veil

remember being left empty

and turn away