AIMI KAIYA art

The Thief Who Came to Steal Nothing

I once feared the dark
believing we could never be friends again.
It hurt me, frightened me,
with an unknown too vast for my heart to bear.

Until one night arrived,
an uninvited guest,
a silent and unseen thief,
came to visit and forced me to speak with him.

He bound me in invisible chains.
I thought, “Darkness is death.”
I must die; he must have come to harm me.

But no,
he revealed instead
that I should remove my heavy cloak and jewels,
until only my bare feet remained,
until only I remained.

I looked into his eyes,
like a black hole from a bottomless galaxy.
There I saw both truth and temptation
fused into one—sincerity,
the one thing humanity both fears and desires.

And I saw it.
I felt it.
I understood it.

He was a thief, yes,
but he came to steal nothing.
He only showed me
that I never needed to possess anything at all.

I am only a passerby
in this room of darkness,
seeing myself through a mirror,
seeing emptiness and silence.

And then I knew
I am but a small light,
a faint firefly glow,
yet bright enough
to see the door
marked Exit.

AIMI KAIYA

Cr.Photo : Rembrandt. Towards eternity, Elena Prudnikova, 2019