Someday You’ll Outgrow Your Shadow

A Poem

One day I outgrew my shadow
it had stuck to me as its own entity
like something out of Peter Pan
where its personality
outranked my own and I let
my shadow speak for me
like sand collecting from the beach
making sandcastles
out of the continuum
collected and categorized
for all the countless times
I allowed it to overshadow me.

My shadow presented itself
as something bred from dreams
not realized by reality
I kept trying to catch it
before it dragged me over a cliff
dying and reliving as it’s
tar made blackness
seeped into my colors
creating black and white
from a rainbow of colors
until I shred it’s hold
allowing my lips to open
for what felt like
the first time in my life
to speak the words
hiding in the corners
where the shadow
kept all of me
not made for
the outside.

My shadow isn’t my own anymore.