Ode to my Shadow

Dear Shadow,

You are my overfed-halogen halo-

you eat six pomegranate seeds, but i am not truly you, you strange shade,

Relieved from gender, relieved from choice, you can lie

In comfort, in ego,

We all find glory in the mundane. You

find glory in full light, as do I: the echo of a shoulder blade, the wispy penumbra of your collarbone.

We are all observers, and we are all mundane. I am just a pair of eyes, and you

Just weave along pathways that perhaps

I am choosing, sloughing off possibilities,

Or that I may never have chosen at all, no more chosen than a Polly Pocket

In the hands of a toddler.

You own me more than I own myself, you are always there, to pick

Up the pieces, to conceal the details of a face, to provide beauty in mystery, to

Superimpose my long fingers on the sidewalk

At six o’clock,

And when I walk with confidence you are certain, you are bold,

And when I flit you show me where I stand, glowing,

Unfreed, humming with unreleasable power.