Borrowing the Sun

Borrowing the Sun reflects on the quiet assumptions that shape how we live within the world—assumptions of ownership, permanence, and return. Through the image of light as something taken rather than given, the poem questions whether what we call use is, in fact, a form of imposition. It suggests that some consequences are not debts to be repaid, but burdens carried forward by those who never chose them.

We borrowed the sun
as though light were a ledger,
as though warmth could be owed.

We spoke of balance—
taking, returning—
as if time kept accounts.

But the sun does not remember.
It burns
without claim.

Too late,
we remember
nothing we take
was ever ours.

We do not leave.
We draw down the light.

What remains
is not a debt
but a weight

not carried—
placed.

It moves forward
without asking,
into lives not yet lived.

No measure.
No consent.
No end.

One day
the light goes out.