Things always exist in the dark.
Some in dark space, like a bulb, or a courtyard wall.
Some in dark time, like the shell wrecks of a snail that decorate the steep side of a cliff.
Some surrounded by dark thoughts, like an afternoon behind a curtain, a solar cooker that is boiling water, or part of the broken tail of a dragon.
It’s not darkness that sets off things; it’s things that reflect the constant existence of darkness.
So things in the dark become totems of darkness.
Darkness is a flag, a flag with an ambiguous attitude.