Oh, shadow, closest friend Closer than a brother Most trusted, most faithful Ever present companion In greatest joy and harshest adversity Thou art by my side In scorching heat and bitter cold Thou stands naked, clothed only in the wraith of mine rainment Thou hast stood with me all the days of my life Only through eternal slumber shalt our fellowship be sundered But shadow, pray tell, where dost thou go when the light fades? When setting sun and twilight's glow lengthen and diminish thee When darkness like a tidal wave smothers all in its ebony pallor When the foul fiends of night swarm like vultures over a fresh carcass When my courage fails and I retreat to my bedchamber for comfort When beasts, real and imagined, rise up to assault my senses When harsh cries and mournful wails make me faint with terror When every hound of hell encircles me, waiting Wherefore art thou, shadow? Dost thou flit away like a raven takes wing? Soaring into the inky night to rejoin your unkindness? Or dost thou slither like a serpent into the depths of darkness Free at last from the shackles of mortal man For deep in my nightly terrors thou abandon me Thou art no comfort, no solace, I stand alone against the foul fiend Art thou a coward? Content to follow yet never lead? No protection from grievous harm Would you merely tell the tale? Or art thou something more? Something dark and sinister? When the murky gloom comes and your chains are unbound When piercing light is nowhere to be found Do you grow to enormous proportions? Do you assault body and mind? Swallow me whole and become the foul fiend? Line count: 37 |