Poem's and Short Stories

Untamed

The air was like mints, fresh and cool. From the east the wind blew softly, a light kiss that just kept coming back for more. The sun, just beginning to turn back towards the earth, was casting shadows that stretched far and thin. So much so that they looked similar to deformed monsters. Even my own was unrecognizable to me, and to be honest it frightened me.

Who's shadow is this? So long and lanky, dark, and without a face?

I think, the thought sending shivers down my spine.

In town, I know shadows like these can't be seen, cause they are hidden behind bigger ones. Yet even though I know  this I feel no need to leave. Perhaps I'm brave, or maybe I'm foolish. Either way I don't move, and niether does she, and for a moment I face my shadow, a stare down between creator and clone. Soon, however, I give up  unable to face my faceless self, and return to watching the sun sink behind the trees while the birds sing with whistles above my head.

The sound of life grows stronger as a pair of strangers walk by. Their own shadows following their every step. Yet somehow they seen oblivious to the beings they cast while I can only be far too aware of mine.

Am I weak to see her? Perhaps others don't see? If so am I strange?

Questions like these burn deep scars into my mind. The kind of scars that never seem to heal, and only grow larger with time. For all I know my mind is already gone. Just a sliver of what it used to be.

Yet, curse it all...cause I can still think, and as long as I'm thinking I'm still alive.

Which is why it still burns.

A jet far overhead awakens my spirit, bringing me back down to earth. Stretching my seized limbs, I stand up. To either side of me two roads unfurl. One leads back to town, to home. While the other leads further into the untamed wilderness. The time reads 1:46 pm and the feeling that I'm needed at home strikes my chest.

"But which is home?"

The place where shadows hide and roam free or where people ignore their problems and banish differences.

Sigh...

Perhaps I'm not ready for the untamed, because before I know it I'm walking towards town. My shadow slighly leading the way as I do. Back to town where shadows hide.

Using the universal interpretation of shadows being demons that everyone has, is sort of my way of showing how people in daily life tend to "hide" their shadows behind routine. In my story "town" is shown almost as the enemy because that is where routine can restrain one from just being themselves. Be wild, be free, be untamed.