Just a Shadow

I stared at a shadow today. I stared. I stared at a pained face. I stared at a roughened face. A face hardened from tears. Tears flowing from sunken eyes. Eyes that had lost the blue ice they used to hold. Lost all sparkle. Blue eyes glazed with desperation that sit in darkened rings of flesh. Tears that burned tracks in chubby cheeks. Colorless bruised cheeks. Tears that flowed through pale crevices in paler skin. Tears that died in anguish on dry pursed lips. Lips that never smile. Lips that barely part to speak, never to laugh. Tears that drop from a scarred trembling chin. Tears that get lost in lifeless curls, that have lost their shimmer. Limp brown curls, which were once golden ringlets framing a gentle face. A face with rosy cheeks, and healthy skin. A face with grinning lips, that were always in laughter. A face with lively, sparkling blue eyes. That was before the shadow. That was before the eyes were filled with tears. Before the tears killed the gentle face. Before the tears that fall to a scornful earth, where a shadow walks. Where a shadow fights to breathe through an ocean of its own fears. The tears that leave blood red stains on the ground where a shadow weeps. The stains are passed by. Never a second glance is given. The shadow screams, the tears fall, the ugly hateful, burning, blood red tears. Never a second glance is given. Not until the shadow looks in a mirror, and sees what it has become. Not until the shadow curses the tears, that fill the ocean that drown it. Not until the shadow looks, and stares at what it has become. Screams, and waits, and stares. Waits for something to happen. Nothing can happen until the shadow sees itself in a mirror staring back. Nothing until the shadow wants the tears to end. I stared at a shadow today. I stared at a shadow staring back at me. I screamed for something to happen. I waited, but no one gave my tears a second glance. So I wait and stare. Wait and stare. The shadow will die in its ocean. But I’m waiting for someone to pull me out. Written March 28th, 2002 © on Mar 28 2002 07:29 AM PST   10 • 0