A Luminous Shadow Poem by Kayode Are

Have been there a few times with fright
Over the Himalaya of myth and self-doubt
Flying stridently but with no goal in sight
Above the deserts, oceans and mounds
A luminous shadow looms on the horizon beyond
An unseen presence which beguiles hope

Across the Sahara in the scorching heat
A timeless emptiness unfolds amidst the dunes
The shadow of death winks at a nomad confused
By the drought of thoughts and a horizon so distant
An arid land watered by streams in ages past
Nothing stands, nothing lasts; only the cortege of ants

Astride the oceans, seas and coasts, waves hit the rocks
Denuding the base of the mound to swallow the beach
The slow and strident frenzy erodes the stable splendor
Which the murk, brackish water of life provides a universe
Fleeting and unsure, roiled by chance and seasonal temper
Dimming the flipping glimmer of a bright gale ahead

Floating in the misty clouds as if on a steady course
Above plateaus, boulders and rock clefts
A small oasis glitters amidst the ups and downs
A pretty landscape dotted with fragments and greens
Yet scarred by a world mirrored in the shade of a grave
Defining the inelastic limits of what we know or crave