The Light

This poem contains themes of childhood trauma. For context – see below

I am warm
I am bright
I hum soft yellow
into the night

Little wings find me
They tickle and hum
Buzz-buzz circles
my glowing sun

Soft wind wings
hello-goodnight
tiny friends
in my light

Not like that noise
Not like her sound
Wet, broken, pulling at my hum
Far on the ground

I don't walk
I don't sway
I stay where I'm put
I stay

A girl cries below
I don't look long
I am light
on a tall, strong pole

The car rocks
I do not
It moves and moves
I stay a dot

I spill on windows
I skip on glass
I bounce and glow
as moments pass

Tears spill on a seat
I can not reach
Her dangling feet
Her tiny hands holding on

Far above me
He is safe
Flying through space
Quiet calm forgetting about me

I am a light on a pole
Warm and fuzzy
With my friends
The bugs buzzing


Erin Michelle Smith
December 2025
  
[Context available here]
This poem is about one of the nights (there were more than a few) my neighbor needed my "help" - I was eight years old. I didn't know at the time, but he was an addict and needed more drugs. He told me that he was sick and was going to the doctor. When we got there, he didn't have money for his medicine and that's where my "help" came in - letting his drug dealer have sex with me as payment.

This took place late at night in a parking lot of a building where I think he use to work. My neighbor sitting in the driver's seat right in front of me getting high or what ever... and me bent over the passenger seat with the door opened and the drug dealer behind me doing his thing. I thought he loved me. I thought I was special. This didn't feel like that.

Aaron had long escaped, into his safety spot - imagining himself flying through space completely alone and untouchable. Samantha was left there to deal with the moment. She, trying to escape as well, imagined what it would be like to be a light on the one and only light pole in the parking lot. Humming, warm, soft light high above everything going on, with her friends flying all around.