THE SHADOW BORROWERS


don't know when
I had copped on
to the fact that

my shadow
had begun
to ressemble Shakespeare

as if the Bard
had reassembled
himself again

by means of
the molecules of
my shadow

"To be me or
not to be me?"
I soliloquised

said that he had "eh
...borrowed my shadow
rather than stolen it!"

admitted that this
'borrowing'
as it were

of the shadows
of the living
enabled him

to keep on
living
outside his words

and so pass through
the world
instead of being dead

which he said
was no fun
at all

confessed he
had only
a week to go

inhabiting
the shadow
of my reality

"What do I get
out of all this?"
I asked politely

"Oh you get to
have a go
at being me

you know
my wisdom
my witticisms!"

and indeed I
had noticed a certain
way with words  so

that in the end I was
sad to see him
go

but that Debussy chap
had now taken
his place

and suddenly I was
able to play his
'Jardins sous la pluie'

as good as
that Nikolai
Lugansky fella

‘nous n’irons
plus au bois’
I sang to myself

who next
what next
I wondered