As the majesty of the starlit heavens give way to the azure dome… there is the dawn: the smoky -gray curtain slowly obscures my window on the cosmos… forcing me back into the world. This is not to say that the dawn is without it’s beauty but rather, it has lost it’s allure to me long ago. It was my time in the Army, during my youth, which forever tainted the dawn. Fear of the dark is the naive irrationality of a child whereas… fear of illumination is something only the military can instill.