There’s a light in our darkness

I didn't see the light left on. 
It was such a small beam directed downward. 
A task light, meant to illuminate
what was cooking, to give a 
progress report on the scrambled eggs
which had been long since consumed.

I didn't see the light left on. 
What with the sun's rays drowning it in their showy display, 
splashing their way across the fingerprint-streaked kitchen appliances and reflecting onto the floor, 
where yesterday's crumbs mixed with this morning's paw prints all clamoring to be cleaned. 

I didn't see the light left on. 
The overhead luminescent so immediate and far-reaching. 
The days' news face-up, unwilling to wait with its urgent communications,
and night-before items strewn, awaiting retrieval,
while two impatient hounds whine their displeasure
from sleeping quarters half-a-room away.

I didn't see the light left on. 
Those perpetual under-the-cabinet LEDs so unforgiving! 
Every corner exposed, every surface uncovered.
"Coffee's ready!" insists a tiny green light, dismissing its "2:00 AM" digital display. 
Little liar. Pay no attention to the coffee pot clock. 
It used to brew on command, back in the day.

I didn't see the light left on
until it was time to leave; and I 
switched off the overheads, 
extinguished the LEDs and
bid the sun's rays farewell as they moved mercifully
onward taking their attentions and affections elsewhere.

"Excuse me," beckoned the light,
its beam still focused on its solemn assignment --
standing sentry over the cooking coils,
long cooled and fully forgotten. 

until the darkening dared it to proclaim itself.
 
"I'm still here." 

I wonder what else I am not seeing,
drowned as it often is in the invading ambient light.

I wonder what else I am not hearing, 
quenched as it often is by the parading ambient noise.

I wonder what else I am not sensing, 
habituated as I've become to the pelting of ambient turmoil.

I wonder what I might discover, if
I let myself attend to the light left on: 

Its dedicated beam
Its resolute stare

Its stalwart attention
Its deep concern

What is it trying to show me?
what is it trying to tell me?
What is it dying to say?

Perhaps only darkness could bring this to light.