Without the shadow of a doubt

 Without the shadow of a doubt

Wouldn’t it be interesting to live in a world of shadows?

Not the dramatic shadows of the movies, of the "Third Man" sort,

but the shadows from a hair brush on a slanted sunbeam,

or from a fork in the candlelight of a dinner.

Of course you would also be a weird shadow,

but would your thoughts be the same?

Would real shadows be unreal and unreal shadows real?

What is the shape of a shadow of a doubt?

The angular shadows that move in the sun, hard

against a red wall or a dazzling white. They are dichotomous 

within the thinking in the blinking of an eye. A light that flickers sending

the shadows peeling. The stare renders them a negative positive 

fluctuance. A retinal searing of slow time’s resolution.

All shadow is night without lights. The obvious ambivalence 

of a line drawn where no line is adumbrated but upon

the shifting borders of a light’s fleeting presence. 

A shadow cannot be scooped up and stored in a box; 

or trapped in a jar. Can a light?

Without the shadow of a doubt I am sure doubtful it can? not?