A SHADOW OF MYSELF

By Vincent Kenny

My echo is the shadow of my voice -

not me….

merely an absconded sound from deep within – now free.

And that substance-casting shadow on the ground?

I am the blocking of the light,

The absence of……

A dark patch - instead of me.

That spoken thought,

that emitted sound?

a cacophony of guttural air shaped noise,

an expression of humanity – me.

And yet;

“Pulvis et umbra sumas” Horace said.

“We are dust and shadow.”

We are certainly dust; atomized, quantum specks,

right down to their minutia –

beyond comprehension,

electron circling …

resonating ….

Dust!

But my shadow…..  shimmering on the sand,

is still my blocked light -

a dark stain upon the land.

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