Dark Days in the Night

subfusc \sub-FUHSK\, adjective:
Dark or dull in color; drab, dusky.

[Origin: 1755–65; <>subfuscus]

Subordinate ordnance ordains
Our upturned faces singly in the night;
Obligations spit and crackle
Peeling the subfuscous nothing above us
into ribbons of razor-light;
Washing the pride from our countenance
in sublime strips;
Leaving our hearts beating sluggishly
Underground.