Shadows
Sometimes when the paper holds a ghost
before the colors touch the page,
and shadows rise to the surface
of collective conscience,
and apparition fast-appearing
whole
like Venus rising in the foam or,
Athena’s agile form
Sword-swinging a surprise entrance on Olympus,
compelling an attention, and
Intention forms, flows, suggests,
Knowing that we
Planaria Imperious
armed with thumbs
and our species’ strange mythology of eminent domain,
Still eat images like microbes do, instinctual amoebas all.
And where dialogue has been defeated
We are still seduced by color and the body’s biophilia.
The shadows stories build an Elegy,
A Requiem for Nature
And maybe more –
A memory consumed from mind to mind direct
As planaria connect
To say in fact across the generations
Look and love the light,
The light that casts these shadows on the wall.
For ‘ love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things,
Love never fails’
To recreate the world in its own image
And force the false constructions of Tyranny’s diseased display
To collapse in dust, like Ozzymandias
And wash away like chalk in summer rain.