A Stark Escape

My shadow leaves me on the sidewalk,

and walks alone

down the street across from me.

It slips out of me,

from the soul’s hidden recesses

where the unsaid finds a voice

upon my tongue.

It needs no shoes,

no umbrella,

no cigarettes…

It never checks its pockets

the way I do.

It crosses on red,

heedless of passing cars,

or storefront displays.

It greets the shops

I no longer dare to walk past,

and smiles at passersby

I know by name.

When it sees an unfamiliar face

wearing the very clothes I wear,

it disappears behind

an abandoned sing.

It resumes its walk

when realizing that

it was not me who saw it,

as though forever

it were fleeing my body,

footsteps have grown heavy,

and it alone breaks free

of a name called “I.”

Mustafa Abdulmalek Al-Sumaidi, Yemen