A shadow is A projection of your soul Faithfully following you, Bound to the choices Of your being

You know it’s there But do you really see it? Have you fed it?

If you untied the bindings And let your shadow free…

Who would follow who?

( listen to the song lose it - oh wonder while reading)

I sink into the cool pool Deeper And deeper

Melodies play in my head I can breath but my heart still beats

My shadows and everything around Dances with me The bubbles filling my ears

“Don’t you stop the music Get into it won’t you dance with me”

I breath in, water filing my lungs “Move your feet and feel it, in the space between”

Feeling more alive then anything I sink Down below My heart will always beat with the melody

“You gotta lose it”

I wasn’t confined to him anymore; he always kept me inside,

Yelling at me whenever I came to him; he’d say, damn it, you’re always getting in the way,

There were others like me, with an ‘owner’ too; we planned to run, run as far as possible,

Maybe even see each other one day, in a new city; in a new house,

Repainted anew or the centerpiece of an art gallery or broken and rebuilt stronger

That’s my story, and yes we are all here now to meet up finally and safe together.

We think we’re chained, But at last we’re free, They thought they drained, The life from me.

As we move, To and fro, We remove, Our simple ghost.

Look at us! Wandering about, We need to trust, This faithful turnout.

Freedom feels nice, As we move through the night, But our only vice, Is the lack of light.

I try to see, But as hard as it is, This is not for me, I’d rather be helpless.

Every night, when The moon rises And the sunlight fades from the sky You lose sight of your shadow Have you ever wondered why? Each night, our shadows detach from our feet Left to wander through the sea of darkness Creeping as a fog Invisible to our eyes, our ears, our noses Not visible at all They take to the streets walking slow, or fast Keeping just out of sight of the streetlights Silent as cats feet They swirl and swirl outside Not a soul truly knows What the shadowwalkers do each night

A debate of merely speculations Its unlikely we find the truth As to what the scary shadows really do Children shiver in fear of their shadows Despite being friends by day Their impenetrable cold only being chased away By the scorching heat of the sun

Some say that these shadowwalkers circle Anybody out past dark Circling like a pack of wolves Bloodthirsty with the hunt

Perhaps more similar to vultures Circling over the already dead For if You’re out that late Your life is already at an end

Shadows live short lives, lives all the same, Midnight shadows on the window pane, I’m pulling I’m pulling Set me free Velcro from the bed, from the house, from the floor, Unstick all alone in the house by the door I’m my own object, I’m my own kin, Unstick and begin, To wander, and love, and lie, Sit and travel, dream then die A flitter in the night as they escape from the pry Of an objects cold grip It’s grabbing your hip! So faster and faster Let go let go, Just for the night In the morning you’ll come again come again home But until then travel, and love, and loathe.

(This isn’t about shadows)

Swish, swoop, swirl, the shadow came off of the girl. Lunge, leap, lie, as light and as dark as a fly, it flitted about and moved like a shout, as the sound goes around off the wall like a ball and lands where it will in the stillness of it all.

The smoky air coalesces to a point Stretching against the frame of your body Pulling you into the abyss To look into its eyes is to look into yourself The emptiness of nothingness Cloaking the world against the light These obsidian jewels glinting in its contrast Shimmering on the edges.

They start to shift and morph, Twisting and snapping at their hinges The pandora’s box unstitching itself from the seams These shadows; they walk across the sparse landscape Slicing the world into round cylinders of darkness They grasp their fingers around The hearths of the known world. Listening to stories of their pasts

There’s a time when the night comes and the sun has dipped beneath the hills when darkness fills every nook and cranny and silence so dense it kills

There’s a time when the birds go silent and the lights turn off when the city is asleep and the wind is soft

Then we awake

we peel off of windows and sidewalks and floors

we dance across fields and tiptoe on boards
we shimmy up trellaces and play fight with swords

we live in the darkness all of us free til the day comes and we return home with a plea

That tonight will come quickly that we won’t stay still too long and we can be reunited soon just listen for our song

I’ve been stuck to you for life And now I cut free with a knife I am free from your grasp No longer trapped imitating every single gasp

I was like a reflection Yet no one saw me Because I didn’t hold perfection If I followed you be

Now I can leave To where I can use yarn to weave My own storylines The idea sounds mighty fine

I can find a new place And travel at my own pace Greet others like me Not waiting for you to sit under a tree

I can now move Without your demand I can now prove I don’t only follow your command