when the shadows get long

an anxious poem about evening anxiety

When the shadows get long my breath hitches and knots

Knitting the air in my lungs into uneven rows and twisted cables.

When the shadows get long I don’t know whether to follow my thin body double

Or let it stalk behind.

When the shadows get long my mind is filled with anxious smoke

Clouding the clear picture before me.

When the shadows get long, no matter the season, I anxiously wait for night

Enveloping myself in distracting comfort only found in the darkness.

When the shadows get long I wish there were no shadows at all, the sun hidden by gloomy grey concealing the transition from day to night.

When the shadows get long I sometimes imagine I am the silhouette,

Thin, fading and fleeting.

When my shadow disappears

So does the opaque fear.