Embracing The Night Poem by Keith Shorrocks Johnson

Laid out naked below the balcony
Under probing ultra-violet light
Singletons and couples sleep fitfully
Eventually relaxing to the night.
The dark sheets frame them in negative
As they surface and then fall asleep
Into that lost land where spectres dwell
And those who loved and hoped may weep
In private heaven or private hell
Being brought as they are to sacrifice -

Flying or leaping in silence and slow time
Stretched out in ecstasy or torment
The sleepers move beyond care or claim,
Immodest to sense and consciousness.
Of what do they dream in those shadows now:
Of fantasies or the past returned -
Of things undone or discharged guiltily -
Or of favours that may yet be gained -
Caught in the flickering of a show
Where recognition stirs uneasily?

And now in that deep unfathomable state
They reach out to someone, anyone to touch -
Or shrink from entanglement with their mate,
Suddenly restive or cloyed at their clutch -
Taking up flight across the firmament
Reaching for the comfort of the cold stars:
Like those who fled the hell of Pompeii
And who forever sleep in testament
Of the lesser power of light on stone,
Though love there too defied that infamy.

Who are these brought now to the sacrifice?
To what still altar, what mysterious priest,
Lost in little death to open, honest skies,
Do the pliant come to be oppressed?
Dreams and nightmares vitrified that instant -
Tissue turned to glass and shone to jet.
Who will rise again from the lipped tray,
From the inert and becoming object,
Brought back like Lazarus to the present
Once more to the sunlight for a little stay.

And what of beauty and coming to truth?
Is beauty truth, truth beauty at the last
Brought finally to bay from mad pursuit
When dreams are real, and life has passed?
Form and surface in timeless endlessness
Where states decay beyond oblivion
And generations pass to death
From shades of Arcady and Avalon.
Will there be something left aside from less
Where sleepy heads share Lethe's shallow breath?