Differentiation

yesterday
though it was daylight 
I saw myself as a night landscape
holding multitudes
embracing divisions

I made an effort
to represent myself as split
to others
looking for pity
or a blessed contradiction 

poor me
and me
and me
who cannot connect
and remain at war 

then last night
I saw birds
flying across
all our backyards
with the moon behind them

in daylight
I might have known the difference
(if they were indeed different species)
but last night they flew together 
and they seemed the same

whatever distance I imagine lies
between the voices I speak in by day
is only measurable in mythic units
that do not in fact exist
when I’m by myself in the dark