In darkness without the light tonight
in dark in black in you in back
the wolf tonight
will enter you
You won’t know when
in front in back
inside in black
you won’t know
who it is
who comes in you
who comes at all
I’ll say “It wasn’t me.”
It was the wolf”
who came in you.”
In your darkest part
you took him in
and now he’s back
and won’t take “no”
for an answer
In dreams you run
through black
out back
until you come
to the darkest edge
of the woods
where the trees push through
you find him there
dying
dying to take
you again
*
Words by Tullio DeSantis, 2013
Video: “Departing Earth from Messenger” from APODVideos
Tullio DeSantis 
I don’t know if I want the light on or not. Powerful.
A force greater than man kind or the general populous of man kind herds us, in the dark where we are weak temporarily disarmed and fearful due to our lack of adaption. the average human can be taken advantage of manipulated, led, chased, forced. An anonymous being is portrayed with the potential to induce an even greater fear the fear of the unknown this can overpower the average human especially when they are removed from their own environment. The poem evokes some kind of forced sexual intimacy, perhaps a the wolf itself is not in a benevolent state of mind, and like the animal it is yearns for blood to satisfy its hunger.
I’m not too sure why, but this poem really spoke to me. It potrays death and dying as a dream; a nightmare one has had. The reoccuring being that you fear in your sleep is death itself. Like the wolf, that is the death in someones dream, but it wasn’t until they died the wolf won the battle. The wolf conquered your mind and who you are and you then became nothing again. It shows the inner evil we have. We like to force the blame onto something else, but it is really our own impulse we acted on. We represent the wolves to ourselves, and we die because the battle between the mind and body ended.
The comments have been helpful for me with this one. Thank-you. I watched a documentary on fear and what happens in the brain, and have been thinking a lot about fear. I’m unafraid of death, but life can present fear greater than the darkness of death, and exposure to that fear had to be a way out of the darkness. It is all inside me, both the light and the dark. I was afraid, but upon examination and understanding both the complexity and the simplicity led me to knowledge. To know is to turn on the light. Thank-you Tullio. The nightmare no longer engulfs me. Note that I’m not assigning meaning to your words; only what they meant to me at this moment in time.
Very Welcome, Christy.
Sean, that’s a really cool interpretation.
Zach, very perceptive, as well.
Great comments, all. Much appreciated.
This fifteen-second video is scary. Maybe not the same kind of scary that a person feels when they are being chased or watching a scary movie, or even the kind of scary a person gets when they are getting higher and higher on a roller coaster. This kind of scary screams desolation, and loneliness. The view of the Earth drifting further and further away, creating a feeling that I might never get to see my family members again, or what do I do now? This video creates a feeling as if everything I ever knew is no more and there is nothing more left but darkness.
The poem was scary within itself as well. The character of the “wolf,” to me, seems like some kind of symbolism for fear. The poem, in my opinion, relates to a moment when a person is at their weakest emotionally. That person is letting fear overcome them without even realizing it, and now that person will forever be fearful unless they learn to overcome the “wolf.” Finally, when that person has finally overcome the fear, they will find themselves in a similar situation in which fear does not think twice before entering this person once again.
This posting is very relatable. Everyone goes through difficulties, and at their worst, fear will overcome them. Fear will always be there through life.
A poem and video that relate like this and is able to create these feelings and portray these emotions is great. It makes me wonder what the composer was feeling and thinking when they created it.