If shadows dance on the snow,
Let the hedgerow gently glow;
Your wings maybe black and white,
But they will lead you to the light!

When everyone has abandoned me,
my shadow laid there next to me,
and it whispered “let’s go home”

And when my poems
turned into suicide notes,
I sharpened the knife,
and put it on my pillow
to sing me to sleep

A bottle of pills with
my full name on it
White and motherly,
I heard them call my
name from a distance

I swallowed the pills,
I swallowed the knife,
my shadow swallowed me

I am finally home

Forming together
As if in a curt whisper,
The gnarled shadows
Poke and ****
At the glimmering snow.

The moonlight
Politely beckoning the wind
To provide these shadows delight.

They giggle in the nip and tickle
Of the seemingly stagnant breeze,
But they bore of its humor
As the wind’s imposing air
Dissipates with growing unconfidence.

The snow’s silky silver sheen
Is shaded by the gnarled green.
The moon’s reflectant piercing light
Prevades this stagnantly silent night.

Owning up to the fact that I cast a shadow.
One that seems to have no end.
Hiding just behind me.
Mechanisms to keep it out of view.
Catch it in the act before it gets past you.

Turn your back to your devil,
And you will see the shadow that it casts.
The reach of its shadow,
Grows larger the longer you hide,
Until all you can see is darkness.
Our devil figure,
Reflects in another.
The Archenemy,
Is buried inside me.

We are our own devil,
And make everyone else our devil.

I cast my devil onto you,
And now you are my devil too.

Your archenemy,
Don’t push that onto me.

Your misery,
Don’t make it mine too.

Your elegy,
See that the devil is you.

Own up to the dark.
Amend yourself.
Catch your devil out in the open,
Trying to make an enemy out of someone.
Blameless, you believe,
You hide the shadow beneath your feet.
Unveil the creature,
Walk through it,
Until it is not your devil anymore.

Born,
Under a silent indigo sky,
In the shadow of the forest,
On the shore of the Pacific Ocean,
Born from the bones of earth,
Voice from the wind and deep sea,
Crowned an eagle feather and fire.

My bird spirit asked me to believe, messages only meant for me —
“Journey to the golden sun,
Meet the shadow,
Save your child,
Become one.”

“From a sea of blood,
A monster will rise,
Unleashing a storm beneath the surface of your skin.
Growing tired and weary,
Mistrusting winds pushing you forward,
Fighting against currents,
Allow the grey skinned creature to carry you to an unknown shore.”

Born,
A warrior,
Gifted a life determined to confront darkness,
Wisdom and medicine to heal tribes,
Power to embrace death and love,
The slayer of monsters,
Child of the golden sun,
I am one.

Standing right behind me,
Just out of view.
In direct sunlight,
I cast a shadow of you.

I draw you back under my feet.
Where I can't see you.

coaxing you back, you’ve been in touch and other senses,
the full thing
cackling at boxed remedies with disowned roots and perfume
some of your ways I saw pushing up daisies, but you knew
with eight legs of womb, the odd collecting caw
with peals of blue and pink emerald encased there would be roads excavated the lace of cobwebs holding
more explosions, implosions than the collective
of stars

coaxing you back, you’ve been black, silver
and every single burst of this
caught up in these failing wishes, new old golden chariots that
paw, claw dance around the dark
mercy for us, prayers for beauty
you lay off the pressure like a yawning diamond coil
throw me a few more yew seeds to feed our ink stain
singing however, not knowing how many tracks we are
to be given