Shawn Nacona Stroud
Shadows
Each evening our shadows escape,
the sun lowers, and they steal
away under the cover of night.
I have seen mine
in those last moments, elongated,
trailing along behind me.
Then I turn around,
and he is gone. He unfastened
the Velcro that connects us,
hands and feet, and slipped
off down the street.
I came upon them,
one midnight walk in South Beach.
Leaving the world of neon
and pastel hotels behind me—
I stepped off the bike path,
my feet sinking in white sand,
and saw them all congregated
with their own kind.
They pretended to be us
while they walked along the beach.
Two sat on the steps
of the lifeguard shack smoking,
and I saw shadows bobbing
like corks in the Atlantic.
I walked towards the water’s edge,
and felt myself fading
as I slowly became one of them.
Shawn Nacona Stroud lives in Charlotte, NC, where he works as a graphic artist. His poems are inspired by the state of Florida where he grew up, and the people and landscapes of North Carolina where he now resides. Shawn Stroud’s poems have appeared in literary journals and ezines such as the Mississippi Crow Magazine, Loch Raven Review, Crescent Moon Journal, The Poetry Worm, and Here and Now. His poetry has also appeared in two anthologies The Poetry Pages Vol. IV and Poetry from the Darkside Vol. 2. Besides painting, Shawn’s other passion has always been reading and writing poetry, and while he is not busy expressing his thoughts and feelings on canvas or paper, he spends his free time editing poetry challenges for an online poetry workshop called the Desert Moon Review.