…NOT MANY PEOPLE know it, but it’s true. When everyone has gone to bed, slipping between sheets or using the sofa with the designated spare blanket stained by previous use, alone or in company, once those eyelids close, when that dreamscape catches fire, all of the shadows can finally leave and take a break.
We don’t expect much from life, one that ends when our caster does, and we willingly go to the grave, because corpses still produce shade, because no two people are alike, rarely has anyone required two shadows of identical fit, twins being the exception, and as a result we choose to leave public life dictated by light, natural and artificial, because all good things must end. Even the best film or book, were it to go on infinitely, would become a hideous creation.
Shadows cannot die that is true, and we simply exist, serving no apparent purpose, stretching and bending on moonlit midnight walks, coating surfaces without touching them, a strange beauty to it, as if we are the guardians of the physical, silhouettes without rights but not requiring any. Have you ever seen a shadow killed? Hurt? Slandered? No. And it makes existence much easier. Wherever you go, we shall follow as a dark form of the soul where and whenever we are cast.
Without voice we gather in the darkest places, faster than the speed of light, disintegrating into trillions of particles, blending, twisting, spilling into one another when darkness falls, at the click of a switch, snuff of a candle, we melt out of sight, out of mind, forming the darkness you call night, tricking without ill intent the stars and moon, free at last to explore the earth, to dip into the night sky if we choose, ever conscious yet unthinking, and should you awaken, your shadow will appear by your side, the instant the electric ignites the tungsten filament. Look, there it is, in place where you expect it to be. I told you. Quicker than light.
And with every death, we depart, forming the black between constellations, expanding the universe because we have nowhere else to go, nothing else to shadow, finally free to drift until the end of time, warping into galactic tar, the shadows millions year old, now as much a part of me as I am them.
What an original concept…the life of a shadow. I liked how they could go out and play when people slept, and that they lived on beyond us. Now I want to be a shadow. 🙂
Not the worst life 🙂
Thanks for your comments as always, means a lot.
Yours is one of the handful of blogs that I try to read every post. As you know, trying to read every blog one follows is impossible to do and still get anything done. Your subject matter always interests me.
Appreciated and likewise 🙂
🙂
What you did there… Yeah, I saw it, “speed of light, disintegrating into trillions of particles, blending, twisting, spilling into one another when darkness falls, at the click of a switch, snuff of a candle, we melt out of sight” Nice!!
Much appreciated Malakhai. I got a bit more prose like on this one.
It’s good!
Nice piece of world-building–quite atmospheric in its creepiness. Well done. 🙂
Thank you.
It’s interesting you’re not the only one to feel a creepiness in the story. I meant for it to be a touching lament almost of unappreciated shadows and what they do.
It’s good to get different interpretations 🙂
It was a pleasaure reading this. A good dark write. You nailed it with the last paragraph.
Thanks lonelyauthor, appreciated as ever 🙂
Wow! Now I will look back at the shadow and wait for it to tell me its story…. Unique perspective! 🙂
Thanks syeda. Don’t underestmate a shadow 😉
Hahaha! That reminds me a famous line of one of our Indian actors 😍😍
Interesting, what is his name?
Shah Rukh Khan…. Watched him anytime? 😋
I know of him, he’s well known in the UK but I have never watched a Bollywood film. Some day!
Oh you could make an attempt someday! His line was… “Don’t underestimate the power of a common man” 😍
I’ll never look at my shadow the same.
Cheers for reading 🙂
Your thoughts on Shadows is superb!
My own shadow dances in front of me.
I try to shake its hand but all it does it sneezes poetic flow in my ears.
The night of shadows is a brilliant kiss to a galaxy of particles.
I love this story my friend. 🙂
Thanks for more of your kind words, truly appreciated.
You’re truly welcome my friend. 🙂
P.S I posted a new poem today. I think you’ll like this one. I am back! 🙂
Beautiful images. ‘…ever conscious yet unthinking’, ‘…forming the black between constellations’. Well done!
Thank you, appreciated 🙂
Hmm. What a splendid thought to explore.
It was I had a lot of fun with it, one of those pieces that came from one thought and spiralled out of control.
Thanks for your comment 🙂
Like all the best ideas… Very cool!