Life is a shadow
Shifting, shaping, twisting
Into braided ropes
That wrap around the throat and
Tug
Bending over window ledges
Curling into gnarled talons that

Grasp at your heart to

Encircle it with icy claws and
Squeeze
A black spot in the darkness of
Your mind, plotting with
Malice and cruelty to swirl around
Your head and before your eyes to
Blind

Life is ever changing
A writhing mass of the uncontrollable
The unforeseen, the unsurpassable
The things we cannot change
We cannot overcome
We cannot even try
The things that steal our breath
Ripping it from our throats and replacing it
With glass shards of dusk
Welling over our eyes and ears
Until we cannot see
Past the regret of the things we have done
The things we used to know
Or thought we knew

The shadows freeze the heart into
Something unrecognizable, something
Less than human, reduced to shadow
To mass of frigid air so brittle
That the slightest touch
Causes fractures to spread
Intricate fissures that form webs
Carved into the frost on the surface
Permeating to the icy shadows
That once ran hot with blood
Cracks proliferating, thriving in the cold
Until the light’s caress makes it
Shatter