shadow, shadow 

oh, how you taunt me

oh, how you trick me

into thinking i could love you.

you’re a reflection of myself on a sunny sidewalk

yet, you portray me pitiful and puny

you encase me on lonely nights 

into a casket of fallacies and doubts 

i believe everything you say,

i am obsequious to your demands

i strip myself down to nothing and allow you, 

the shadow, to blur me into your desires. 

i only desire you. 

i long for the brief seconds you call me beautiful 

and hold onto the days you were never behind me

yet, you are my shadow

not i, yours