The shadow falls before me

The shadow falls before me

As it was meant to

However deep the trough

It falls first

There is never a time

When it is beaten

To the punch

Anticipating every move

Bending in time

Synchronous movement

As predictable

As the chime of a clock at nine

When night falls with the same

Sense of inevitability

And regularity

As sunrise.

It is simpler to understand

Than the inside of a watch

The wonder of it

The promise of perpetual motion

In the movement of every wheel

Each small cog fitting

Into its allotted place.

Every piece, an essential

Part of the process

Equally contingent,

One upon the other

In a slow, measured, unravelling.

A gradual step change

The shadow remains stuck

To my toes

Or flows through

My heels

A streamer, flickering

Beneath the lights.

Even as I Waltz

Or dance the Fandango

Badly out of time,

Not once do we separate

Until the final moment,

When

It falls down

Before me.