bridgeXngs Poetry Center

<CENTER><SMALL>LITTLE as in SHADOW</SMALL></CENTER>


Art by MG and RG

My Shadow

             I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me,
             And what can be the use of him is more than I can see.
             He is very, very like me from the heels up to the head;
             And I see him jump before me, when I jump into my bed.

             The funniest thing about him is the way he likes to grow -
             Not at all like proper children, which is always very slow;
             For he sometimes shoots up taller like an india-rubber ball,
             And he sometimes gets so little that there's none of him at all.

             He hasn't got a notion of how children ought to play,
             And can only make a fool of me in every sort of way.
             He stays so close beside me, he's a coward you can see;
             I'd think shame to stick to nursie as that shadow sticks to me!

             One morning, very early, before the sun was up,
             I rose and found the shining dew on every buttercup;
             But my lazy little shadow, like an arrant sleepy-head,
             Had stayed at home behind me and was fast asleep in bed.

-- Robert Louis Stevenson

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