Shadow or Substance

Shadow or substance
I can be either if I have to
but mostly I like shadow
I prefer it to substance
substance is bold
it is greed and fame
it is anger and vanity
it is conflict
so mostly I watch from the shade
indistinct
an observer
I don’t want to be recognized
a passing hint of me perhaps
a faint memory of someone you knew
I have found it safer to be a zephyr
a mist
a shadow
nobody bothers much
and I can do what I want
but today
out walking in the wetlands
far from the city
on a sunny morning early
amid the bird calls
the whir of crickets
the air moving through the grass
I was free from the aggravations
here I felt of substance
and for a while
I liked it

Marv Himmel
July 4, 2018 ©