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THE THIEF

I think of us lying asleep,

eyes and hands filled with the dark,

when the arm of the night

entered, reaching into the pockets

of our empty clothes. We slept

in the element of that power,

innocent of it, preserved from it

not even by our wish.

As though not born, we were carried

beyond an imminence we did not

waken to, as passively as stars

are carried beyond their spent

shining—our eyes granted to the light

again, by what chance or price

we do not even know.