Artwork © Peter Urkowitz

 

I Prefer It Dark

Kirk enters Spock’s quarters, asks for light.
“I prefer it dark.”
Darkness is not always an old friend to greet hello.

I remember elementary school, dressing up as Mr. Spock for Halloween.
No classmate knew who that is.
Everyone cheered Cinderella and Batman.
Next morning children scream when they see me:
“Aaaaah! Mark, you left your mask on!”
I prefer it dark.

Not any better on Valentine’s Day. Mother Dearest bought
el cheapo Valentine’s cards in a pack of 25 or 40.
We were poor, but I was to give one to EVERY classmate.
Class of thirty-four. Classmates giggle with glee
as their desks piled high with cards.
I got TWO.
A classmate comes to my desk muttering through lips shaped
like barbed wire: the teacher said I had to give you one too.

I prefer it dark.

The parade of princesses, witches, and superheroes
stretches into adulthood.
I rarely participated in office Halloween parties
or working all day in costume.
That did not stop co-workers the next morning from screaming
“You scared me! You forgot to take off your mask from yesterday!”
Some things never change.

One year, a co-worker talked me into costuming. Said everyone else was.
Hoodie and reflecto sunglasses made a pretty convincing Unabomber
(before he was caught)
and it grossed people out (which, shhhh don’t tell) I found satisfactory –
until they sent me down to the bank to make a deposit.
Soon as I open front door, bank security guard
reaches for gun and bull rushes toward me.
Why I am still alive today defies Vulcan logic.
I prefer it dark.

This is where the unliked go to remain unseen, unnoticed, and
          undisturbed
by monsters in human costumes.
They haunt me still.

I prefer it dark.

 

Mark States: “I talk about myself all the time, especially within my poetry. Odd how I am bashful with biographical statements, even though I hosted over a thousand live open mikes when living in the SF Bay Area. Been living in North Carolina the past decade and became something of a poetic hermit until Zoom came along. Now I’m performing and ‘letting it rip’ like the good ole days.”

Peter Urkowitz lives in Salem, Massachusetts, where he works in a college library. He has published poems and art in Meat for Tea: The Valley Review, Oddball Magazine, Sextant, Molecule, Mantis, Wilderness House Literary Review, Nixes Mate Review, and the Lily Poetry Review. His Fake Zodiac Signs chapbook was published by Meat for Tea Press in early 2020, and he collaborated with Alex Ness to publish Tales of Lost Kingdoms in 2024.