Run
Flip-flop, flip-flop...
my footsteps
slap against the cold
hard ground.

Slip-splash, splash-skid...
my slippers
slither through puddles-
I almost fall.

I have been running,
flip-flop-splash-skid-
running God knows where,
searching-
for that elusive
shadow that I want to be.

Don't look,
flip-flop, skid-dash,
don't stop,
never stop.
Don't look,
never see.

What I will find,
I might not like.
What I will see,
will cause me to howl,
scream, rage, shout, wail-
and make me want to run away.

That shadow
does not want light-
that silhouette,
needs no exposure-
for it is afraid-
too afraid,
of being ugly,
a monster that lurks,
unbidden,
never wanted.

Yet I run, scamper,
always adapting,
like a dreaded chameleon,
trying to be that cool graphite stone,
that flexible branch,
that invisible reflection-
of what is admired,
yet can never be.