poem "Shadows"

This poem first appeared  quite a few years ago in the chapbook, Polarities.

SHADOWS

Irrational fears of dark corners
plagued me on long-ago nights.
"Let me stay up til ten.
til you go to bed,
and then I will be quite all right.

"Read me just one more chapter
but not the one about bears,
for the old coat that hangs
on a peg by the door
may be just a coat, but it scares."

These days the darkness is welcome,
needed for resting the eyes,
and the pillow is soft
at the end of the day,
but sometimes there comes a surprise:

A trip to a faraway country,
an interlude back in the past,
where the people who left
for the shadowy world
return from the darkness at last.

The psyche becomes a home movie
that lets me revisit old friends.
They speak and they smile
but just for a while.
Too soon the home video ends.

The visitors vanish at daybreak.
The sunlight too rapidly brings
a return to today
where I feel so alone,
and so badly missing past things.

(c) Ruth Latta, 2020