Skip to content

The book The House of the World has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and is now available on Amazon.

Shadow Chasing

You should step outside yourself
sometime.
Take a breather.
See what you find without your body.
Someone you don’t recognize.
It’s like chasing your shadow
with nothing in it.
Taking a swim with no trunks on
and coming out of the water
clean and glowing.
How weightless the world feels
when there’s nothing on you.
Not heavy and cold,
like sunshine doesn’t count.

And you realize
the world doesn’t ask for much,
except to be listened to
once in a while.
Hear the wind blow
asking for a dance.
Watch clouds pass over
in love with the sky.
In the whole reach of the universe
where else
is such a blue,
such a gray?

And maybe,
just maybe,
you’ll find someone you’d like to know.
Be friends with.
Talk about the weather.
Where you’ve been
and where you’re going.
And like every new relationship,
shy and exciting,
you’d like to see this person again
who lives in the shadow
you cast.

Published inIndex of all Poems