Category: Shadow Poetry

Micro Stories · Shadow Poetry

hope

Daphne ShadowsLeave a comment

i’m not sure i have a voice

you see, there’s a slumbering trembling that takes a step into something warm and inviting, like the sun, but with training wheels

and every time the light of day hits it, someone comes along with a sledgehammer and takes it all away

i keep lying there, catching my breath. before sitting back up, playing with my fingers in the sand, writing maps no one understands but me

it’s lonely

but i can still feel the pulse of it in me, thrumming into a hurricane of neediness, ready to explode and take everything in its path with it. down into this dessert of warmth and cool breezes and nothing that really belongs in these flat lands

do you remember the first time you felt the sun’s heat on your flesh? i think i must’ve had a hand over my mouth, but it wasn’t mine. i think i must’ve had some words fall out, but they came from another tongue

so i grab my shoes and shake the dust out and, what do you know? i’m still entirely ready to get the wind knocked out of me by hope.

Micro Stories · Shadow Poetry

i act like i need it

Daphne Shadows4 Comments

I stared at the words written on the wall for hours without ever seeing them.

The warmth of the day bloomed in me until all I knew were the leaves above in their muted dance.

And my lips recognized the lyrics before my thoughts did. Paint splashing against the wall of my heart. Your voice reverberating through the hollows of my dreams.

You follow me into the empty. Crushing colored glass under my toes in paradise, some sense of you leading me forward.

I can feel you breathing beneath my skin, I see you speak every time I close my eyes.

And there’s this buzz, deep in my flesh. Past the marrow and into the atomic darkness, hidden where the dancing lights of misery and joy fight. It puts a gun in my mouth one second. A love letter the next. Because I remember.

I have to feel it. So I wake up.

And you’re not there.

Shadow Poetry

Remember Me

Daphne Shadows1 Comment

Little moments.

Remember me as these little moments where my true self shines through this disease caking my pores.
They’re all I get.
These little moments.
Shuddering gasps of air, touches of soothing peace and mercy.
They’re not enough. They hide behind eternity now, growing farther away.
Bare slits in the bag over my soul, leaking until I can see the sun, for a brief reprieve.

And I give them to you.
Little notes. Filled to the brim with what my tears can’t communicate.
Before I crumple back in on myself, alone and suffocating.
I know it’s not enough.

What happens when that’s all I am? Scraps left behind.
As the void reaches through my skin, wrapping it’s charred claws round my heart?
The silence is breaking me.
All these little moments, huddling together in the dark, begging for more.

Just a blip on the screen of the body that was stolen from me. I am running out of time but I’m not the one using it all up.

Shadow Poetry

every wild animal

Daphne Shadows3 Comments

love has teeth

slides deep

leaves a mark

breaks in

with a noose

in the dark

in the rafters

hangs your

every enemy

sweeps out

the rug

easy remedy

clears out

your closet

in full, before

before they can

break down

your door

searching

for your dirt

in the garden

because love

love

won’t pardon

love is

a rose

soft petals aplenty

but her thorns

they don’t spare

any

she’ll take

all

of you

you’ll pay

in full

her due

when they

come to

plunder

she’ll dazzle

with passion

and wonder

touch a

soft petal

of yours?

they’ll find

what it means

to be hers

love is

armour

impenetrable

warmth

at night

unbreakable

love will

slit their

throat

stand there

laughing

til they bloat

hate doesn’t

protect like

love does

claws to

open bellies

because

you don’t

you don’t

touch

what love does

her war

cry

comes

to your chest

blood soaked

drums

love has teeth

don’t touch

what’s hers

every wild animal

every wild animal

purrs

Shadow Poetry

themis

Daphne Shadows2 Comments

do you ever lose a moment

to the ever present night?

only to realize too late

it was swallowed by the light?

i think we have it wrong

i think we’re quite confused

it’s never the dark that takes

it’s the bright lights that use

they hide behind their masks

and pretend to hold a flame

what we all new was truth

and never could quite tame

true light in the darkness

when real, is well and good

but nothing teaches better

than being lost in the abyss would

and don’t we feel all alone

in the cold light of day?

instead, a warm embrace

for which we all pray

you don’t need a crutch

you need to learn to see

when you squint against the sun

moments lost to eternity.

Shadow Poetry

silhouettes

Daphne Shadows2 Comments

i always remember

how the darkness

touched your tongue

when they forced you

into the light

your shadow drowned

their malice, their deceptions

found the fissures

dissolved your color

now you’re dull

on their pedestal

made of gold

but i’ll always remember

how you were ablaze

moon kissed and warm

Shadow Poetry

act none

Daphne Shadows2 Comments

i think i heard the last one

i think i heard it falling

but every time i look

there’s a blinding light calling

they said i shouldn’t try

i’d only taste more pain

i really did attempt

but i simply couldn’t refrain

now there’s a naked procession

a broken crown on the floor

an empty throne down the hall

and it’s not so cold anymore.

by Daphne Shadows

Shadow Poetry

Blood & Salt

Daphne ShadowsLeave a comment

I have days
Where I wish
I wasn’t

My fingertips
Burning
With all this
Broken belief

Broken mirrors
Full of dreams
I naively
Dreamt

There are all
These rules
Where I just
Don’t belong

My soul
Is a song
No one wants
To sing

Hope is
A betrayer
A siren song
Sweet lullaby
Sweeping in
To caress

Only,
I don’t see
Until it’s too late
The charcoal claws
Coming for
My soft underbelly

Carving out the warmth
Leaving me hollow
In bed sheets
Wet with blood and salt
Tears I didn’t know
I had left

No porcelain grave
To weep for
My loss

I am barred
From slumber
Repreive

I am begging
For magic
On my knees
Before the abyss

When I’m honest
Alone with
The helpless child
And monster
In me
I wish
I wish I wasn’t

by Daphne Shadows