The Shadow Poem by Padma Devkota

The Shadow



1. The shadow walks the city.
Nameless, weightless and purposeless,
it glides along the pavement, stretches down the street,
crawls close to the glossy tiled walls and clean panes
or along gutters and shambles of unknown lanes.
It dawdles through parks and highways or lingers in the yards
or crowded commercial lanes that wear or do not wear
their heaps of garbage in the growing gloom.
Darkness is not death. The shadow lurks at night
in booze-snoozed restaurants and brilliant halls
where renowned, weight-throwing directors of the nation
rally their tribes in competitive ranks
and chart the passage of tomorrow's flow.

2. There is no tomorrow.
Were there tomorrows or even tomorrow,
tribal wars would end and those aligned with this or that chieftain
would see through the night of human misery,
would see the shadow, would see the folly,
would see light smite darkness in a single flash.
There is no yesterday either.
Were there yesterdays or even yesterday,
the illumination would play on the fluid shores of the heart
and ignite intelligence with pathos.

3. And there is no today!
Only a display of the architecture of tribal wars:
threats, anger, aggression, accusations, name calling,
and haughty throat-cracking cackles of the chieftain and his tribe.
The shadow does not understand.
The shadow does not hear.
It only glides for it can only glide
like a smooth second-hand
of an anachronistic time piece crucified on the wall.

4. If only it melted with the crowd!
If only it went with the flow!
If only it muttered "aye" to stories and lies
like an anabiotic citizen of one of the numerous tribes!

5. The shadow glides over all roughness like one
seeking its salvation in solitude.
It glides over the pavements and the streets
towards some imaginative liberation
which it calls its beatitude.

Monday, March 11,2019

Saturday, March 23, 2019
Topic(s) of this poem: liberation,misery,power
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Padma Devkota

Padma Devkota

Kathmandu, Nepal
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