Shadow Children

Some­where,
along the dis­tance between light and dark,
there are chil­dren play­ing pre­tend

at gravedig­ging. Tugged braids and
kicked shin­bones star­tle laugh­ter and
screams like cold glass rat­tling and
win­ter wind­chimes.

In those shad­ows
Why is not a ques­tion of rea­son
but a crisp cast­ing of defi­ance.

There they are; lim­i­nal, insis­tent,
learn­ing that fear is to be buried
until they have buried so much
fear they are neck deep in it.
Grow­ing, then, becomes a need

to stay above fear, using it as fer­til­iz­er
stretch beyond it, strive
and all the while dri­ve roots deep­er
toward the riv­en rock until the trees

real­ize they have become moles and
now must pre­tend they are at play.
Now, dig­ging blind, Now, shriv­en of all
but a thing called adul­tery.

v2.0

Some­where,
along the dis­tance between light and dark,
there are chil­dren play­ing pre­tend

at gravedig­ging. Tugged braids and
kicked shin­bones star­tle laugh­ter and
screams like cold glass rat­tling and
win­ter wind­chimes.

In those shad­ows
Why becomes a crisp cast­ing of defi­ance;
a state­ment of instinct, not a
ques­tion of rea­son.

They are imag­i­nary; lim­i­nal, insis­tent,
learn­ing that fear is to be buried
until they have buried so much
fear they are neck deep in it.
Grow­ing then, becomes a need

to stay above fear, to use it as fer­til­iz­er
stretch beyond it, strive
and all the while dri­ve roots deep­er
to bedrock until the trees

notice they have sur­round­ed them­selves
with dirt and must now pre­tend they are
play­ing as moles.

Now, dig­ging blind. Now,
shriv­en of all
but a thing called adul­tery.


This turned out a hell of a lot dark­er than I antic­i­pat­ed. I was ini­tial­ly think­ing about how chil­dren are truth­s­peak­ers until they learn enough nuances of lan­guage and get encul­tured enough to guard their tongues. A sort of Kids Say the Darnedest Things idea. That whole con­cept end­ed up as fear. The idea that adult­hood is basi­cal­ly just a long drawn-out denial or con-game sticks around, thank­ful­ly. I think poets try to reclaim the hon­esty of child­hood. Not child­ish­ness, but the seem­ing­ly inher­ent abil­i­ty to call a horse a Pega­sus and make it true, and to speak their mind with­out fear for reper­cus­sion. I’m try­ing to get to that point myself. Where I can write, draw­ing from the well of my expe­ri­ence, over­com­ing any wor­ries that I have about friends or fam­i­ly chang­ing their per­cep­tions of me because of what appears.

As always this poem is a rough draft. But what I’m going to do now is keep every iter­a­tion of the poem in the post, so the last one will be the most recent ver­sion. Your com­ments and sug­ges­tions are appre­ci­at­ed.