Poetry
Writing
Death | Free Verse | Life | Reflective
My Shadow, My Friend | Poem
By Ammie-Marie Littke
On Saturday, February 24, 2024 @ 1:46 pm
My Shadow, My Friend | © 2024 Ammie-Marie Littke
My shadow follows me
She has a life of her own
Walking along, behind, and beside
Wherever I go
She was born the same instant
The same moment I breathed life
We travel together as one
Wading through every strife
She watches my back
My fiercest protector
Chasing me under the sun
Haunting me like a spectre
On the shortest of days
She revels the mighty oak tree
On the longest of nights
She cradles my turbulent dreams
One is never alone in a world
Not always so shiny and bright
But even darkness cannot thrive
Without the promise of light
As the days turn to weeks
And the weeks turn to years
She carries on the memory
Of a time when I was here
Long after I am gone, she will exist
Under the remnants of my bones
Beyond the edges of my tomb
Ever watching, waiting like a stone
My shadow, my friend
You know better than most
In the end, it’s you who shall live
And I’ll be your warding ghost
ABOUT THIS WORK
On a warming February afternoon, I went for a walk in a vast, wooded forest.
Under the high winter sun, my shadow grew in multiples of my height, accompanying me along the winding trail like a giant. The trail was muddy and slippery, with solid patches where the sun's distant heat dried the damp ground. Fallen leaves from the previous autumn littered the ground. Fallen trees tore up the Earth in pillowy, rooted mounds.
I remembered the first time I ever truly noticed my shadow. I was a student in 1st Grade and my elementary school was practicing fire drills.
In a single file line, we marched out of the classroom. We turned left, and walked down the hallway towards the exit, where our meetup spot was just outside of the back of the school.
Standing in the warming sun, I listened to the blaring sound of the fire alarm echoing across the parking lot. I looked around me as other classes exited the building.
I glanced down at my shoes, and noticed a change in the color of the pavement just off the right side of my feet. I followed the outline of my shoes to my legs, from my legs to my arms, from my arms to my head. I moved my arms and lifted my foot, watching as the silhouette followed my every move.
I had heard about shadows, and I had noticed them before, but this was the first time I was studying my own shadow. I noticed details about the shape, height, and width of the shadow as I moved around in a circle. The further away I was from the ground, the larger my shadow grew against the light of the mighty sun. The top of my head seemed so much bigger than the soles of my shoes!
Eventually, the sound of the alarm was silenced, marking the end of the fire drill. As we made a u-turn around the parking lot back into the building, I watched my shadow twist and shift as I walked.
It slowly disappear under the shadow of the building as we got closer to the double doors, returning back to safety of the hallway.
When the last bell rang for the day, I packed up my bookbag as quickly as I could, eager to greet my shadow one last time before I had to get on the bus.
To my great disappointment, my shadow was gone - hidden by an array of cumulus clouds that filled the once-sunny sky. I was confused by what happened, and waited for what seemed like forever for my shadow to return, but it did not.
Once again, I followed my classmates in a single-file line, and made my way to a window seat on the bus.
As the bus rolled from stop to stop, the sun burst through the clouds, and cast a large shadow of the bus onto the ground. Finally, there it was again.
All the way home, I studied the shadow of the bus as it distorted and moved against the sidewalks and roads. I noticed how the wheels moved with the light cascading in kaleidoscope patterns.
It was a beautiful sight to see.
Hey! I'm Ammie-Marie.
