Sucker for Sunsets

You brought sunsets into my life. I was blind
Before you took me by the chin and
Turned my face to the side to see
Outside the window at the pale yellow sun
Turned red as it fell into the hills
But before it died and night became, you made
Me look, really look, at the turning,
The swirling of the sun, the changing colors,
The sight of which bore a hole into my soul
And claimed a place for that image alone.

Then you left.

Now,
Every time day turns to dusk
I feel compelled to climb higher,
Ever higher,
To the highest height of any building I’m in,
Or the nearest building,
If I’m walking on the street
To the top,
Be it roof or balcony,
To see
The sunset.
Dusk was our time.
Now dusk
Is my time.
I’m compelled.
I climb.
I climb.

Sometimes they don’t let me.
That’s okay.
There’s no law I wouldn’t break.
Don’t you see?
I need to see,
To watch,
To witness,
To bawk
At the sunset.
It’s not a sunset.
It’s the sun
Setting,
burning,
Blazing
Into the hills.
The horizon
Is a place where fire has engulfed every reason
And the sunset is the only trace we humans
Are allowed into that violence.

No,
The sun is a giant eye or a demon
That peers onto our world and the sunset
Is the world defeating that eye or demon
And casting it to where we cannot see.
Only I see.
Only I witness.
Is that what you taught me?
But then you went away.
Is the sunset a message
For why you went away?
The sunset is just a sunset.
It’s just yellow turned red
Then black.
Black like nothingness.
I close my eyes and I still see the sunset.
I close my eyes and I never see you,
Just the sunset.
I close.
I close.
I’m close.
I’m close.
My eyelids.
My eyes.
My lids burn red.
I close my eyes and my lids
Burn red.
Even at night it’s never dark.
It’s never black.
It’s red.
I’ve looked at sunsets so much
They’ve traced themselves
Into my lids.
It’s red. It’s red.

You brought sunsets into my life.
Then you left.
Then you left.
I wish I was blind.
I wish I was dead.



Poetry by Sameen The PoetBay support member heart!
Read 31 times
Written on 2026-01-07 at 16:31

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Melinda K Zarate The PoetBay support member heart!
Sheen,
Your poem flows with such intensity. It is painfully beautiful in its imagery, but was so heartbreaking to me at the end.

~ Melinda
2026-01-07