I saw my shadow today. I ran inside and hid in a closet until she had passed. Trapped as I was within my flesh, I knew she would dog me all the days of my life with a mean-spirited perspicacity that enabled her to judge. A fraction of light beamed under the closet door but my shadow stayed away. I wanted my flesh to melt so I could stop running, but then who would I be without a shadow?I asked the groundhog for information because he always sees his shadow and sticks around anyway. He didn’t know much but he did tell me that when he sees his shadow, the winter is over. He advised me to join my shadow, play with her and enjoy the summer. I thought about it for a few minutes and called Michael Jackson who, I believed, hid in closets to avoid his famous shadow. But it was too late to get an answer as his shadow had already erased him.I ventured outside to see how it felt to stay quiet within my shadow. She dared to mock my every move, and followed me north, south, east and west. So, when the rains came, my shadow stayed away and I, a rain angel without her trickster, lay on the ground and watched clouds dart like ninjas between lightning strikes. When the sun slid out from its cumulus loft, my shadow emerged as well. I ran inside and now peer at her from inside my concrete house — waiting for the rain.

6tales.com, February, 2011

RexShadowing the Shadow