A man sits by a rock
"And what wakes you," he asks
"And what idle thoughts bring you here," I reply
We look at each other for a while
Thinking familiar yet unknown thoughts
We pistol finger each other as if to say, "Touche."
He continues to smoke a cigar
And I continue to walk up the beach
An imprint. An imprint in the sand
A shadow that's not born of a shifting sun
Had I lain there for so long?
A woman comes and places a flower by it
She is in tears and full of kindness
"Someday," she says, "I will also be a shadow that's dead to time."
I scoop up a handful of sand and drop it on the figure
Where the mouth should be
The sand falls but never builds
Where does it go?
There is depth in darkness and I have just seen it
It should be strange but I am not surprised
The lady does not move nor seems to be affected
I am after all just a mess of weeds on the beach
How tall am I? I wonder
Why, just a moment ago....
I peek through the weeds and see shuttered light
The lady is also looming tall
Did I just shrink?
Water now washes over me and air bubbles away from my mouth
Then my lungs and other orifices
I struggle but entangle myself even more
And then I float and is washed ashore
The shadow that was there is a shadow no more
- by TC Lai
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