Corrupt Darkness

I counted five hundred thousand
Illustrious, brilliant, renowned
Self-luminous bodies of gas
Before I found my self
Flustered, and unable to think

This field I keep coming back to
It's illegal for me to stay here
Night, after night, after night
But its gravitational pull is much too strong
To withstand

It fits me like a space blanket
Like an overcast of warmth and comfort
And at the exact
Same time, there is a lack of heat
The night benumbs me

And yet I keep coming back
Back to the same spot
On the top of this incline
The warmth and comfort is why I'm alive
But it's the undesirable temperature that I live for
I pursue these cold nights
Because they tell me there is more
There is more than this warmth and comfort
I don't know what it is
This flowing field of hay
Will lend to me the answers

I don't know when they'll come
I know where to find them
And every morning I will get up and run
I'll leave that field so I am not discovered
I don't mean to be criminal
But trespassing feels so good

---

Eli Debelak, age 17
2008 Finalist
Skandia, Michigan
Gwinn High School
Teacher: Amy Laitinen