I found myself watching my shadow
As if discovering it for the first time
I watch how it walked
I watched what it said
(Or at least imagined it out of my head)
Although it looks dark
It takes everything lightly
It is most defined when the sun glows brightly
But at night
It creeps up the wall and stares down from the ceiling
As I read
And then vanishes when I’m sleeping
I thought of how it is to be Kate
I thought of all the deep thoughts
My shadow never bothers to contemplate
I thought of how easy it must be to follow
Not lead
Make decisions
Think
Bleed
I thought how simple the one dimensional life appears.
We apply such pressure to the ordinary self
When nobody expects a shadow to be anyone else
I laughed at the thought
That a shadow could change
And realised
The true freedom a shadow enjoys
Is not having a head that can think
Because
None of this is really important
And in a blink
The light goes out
We go to sleep
And everything
Disappears
Quick as a wink
“Quick as a wink “ My grandfather used to say it all the time.
Header photo palm tree shadows early morning Brisbane botanic gardens. I’m not there though, I’m at home, writing packing lists for a camping trip out west that I have planned. Stars, bush and quiet – I can’t wait. I’ll be sharing snippets in poetry here and longer posts on SubStack (which I’ll link back here) and then entire project with all the photography will be wrapped up and live on my new website when I’ve gathered it all together.
Is a website necessary when I have this poetry journal and SubStack and Flickr and books? Yes, because I have bits and pieces everywhere and wanted to give everything a nice house where they can all go off to work separately but at the end of the day, come home.
The internet is as big as a universe and our work can so easily be lost.
I’ll share the address shortly once I have it all nice and tidy and you can come for a cup of tea – not now though – there are packing boxes everywhere at the moment.

I hope you and your shadow have a wonderful time, Kate!!!! 💕
Thanks Cindy, sure to 💕
🩷🙌🩷
Lovely piece – so clever in its simplicity, yet thought-provoking. Looking forward to the website, and I’m glad you’re spreading the bits all over the place. It feels genuine, as opposed to the contrived strategies of influencers and social media stars who are always under pressure to post all over the place. The more authentic, heartfelt stuff there is out there, the better 🙂
Thanks Yacoob, I love that you are over on SubStack too. WP is my favourite but it’s good to explore other writing platforms. The website is excellent for bringing it all together.
this is a great piece, Kate: beautifully written and deeply probing on the concept of self and the sacrifices it demands; the shadow is a great metaphor for ‘the head that does not think’ ; o, the rabbit holes thought has taken me down —
Enjoy the rabbit holes John. I take my snorkel sometimes 😂 could be down there for awhile
hahaha; surface soon, Kate 🙂