(soft wind, distant hoot) I do not come in daylight. (pause) I arrive when the noise has thinned, when your distractions have gone to sleep. (wing sound passes left to right) You asked for truth, but you kept the lights on. (short pause) Turn them off. (closer hoot — low, resonant) I see what moves beneath your certainty. I see what waits in the corners you avoid. (gentle breath) Do not ask me to soften it. Clarity is not cruelty. (branch creak, stillness) What you refuse to look at already knows your name. (two short hoots, uneven rhythm) Sit still. (pause — longer) The dark is not your enemy. It is where the answers stop hiding. (wing sound fades upward) When you are ready to see, I will already be there. (final distant hoot, then silence)
