Shadows
There have been shadows in my life
big shadows
in the narrow corners
of my days
in the perplexed horizons
of my shuffled nights
There have been black shadows
that danced without word
around the cradle of my childhood
shadows without grandfather
without grandmother
But not for that any less ghostly
any less full
of horror
There have been shadows in the pulses
of my feet that have often stumbled
in the light night of midday.
There have been shadows of flesh and blood
and pestilential kisses
I wouldn’t want to deny it.
Who has never felt
the dead weight of shadows
at the rooster’s dismantled hour ?
Who has never half awoken
to a slick silky
insatiable hunger
and a sadness
beyond measure ?
There have been shadows
on my shoes
on my shirts
across my illiterate walls
riddled with vain tasks
that have been left undone
The stuttering shadows
of speechless distances
and the inconsolable
sloth of death
There have been shadows
my friends
John Lyons