the old man on the moon said to me:
"there's a trapdoor in the sun.
if you find it you'll find the way."
i asked him for any sort of help;
he told me to i'd need to unlock it with my heart.
i jumped the clouds to reach the sky,
trying to hide from the glare of city-lights;
but the galaxies were the ones to blind my poor eyes,
and i fell under the cover of night.
all along the stars had been fading,
lamplights dimming
'till all i could see was dark, dark
darkness.
i thought back to the old man on the moon
and shook my head, thinking his words
useless; but then i saw a trail of novae -
n. collapsing / dying stars -
and followed them right back to their source.
there i slew the dragon of the night,
but realized my mistake only too late.
now the darkness was all gone,
but the sun dominated all the world.
and everywhere light was killing, killing,
without any darkness to soothe its burns.
the old man on the moon found me
and shook his head in disappointment.
he died before me and my heart nearly withered
beneath the burden of all my pain and regret.
but then i remembered his words again:
this time, i was determined to succeed.
i took a jar and filled it to the brim
with the moon's tears of mournful grief;
i shook it and shook it until it was ready,
then uncapped it; and boom -
it exploded just like the stars once had,
yet instead of brightness
it was a splash of tarnished silver against the backdrop
of blinding gold. and that was when i saw it:
the trapdoor in the sun.
i only saw the handle, to be honest;
but that was enough.
i jumped as high as i could reach
and finally landed on that infamous star.
i pulled and pulled until i couldn't pull no more.
then i stopped; and thought back to that cryptic hint.
i reached inside my tired chest;
found my heart, then took a paintbrush from my pocket
and painted my soul right on the trapdoor wood.
and as i painted the wood dampened
until with one light tap i caused a crack -
that became two cracks, then three then
an infinity of cracks appeared; and the trapdoor broke.
and then i died, but with my death
so died the light. and the nights returned
with newly-lit stars, forcing the days
back until the world was balanced again.
the old man on the moon said to me:
"there used to be a trapdoor in the sun;
you've found it, and now we, too, can shine."
