Shadow Warfare

This shadow warfare is elusive,

for when I raise my hand to strike,

I make another shadow

I chase them inward

down all the corridors

where more and more of them have hidden —

they lay blame in sprawling overlapping patterns

over me, my circumstances, and the entities

identified as other

If I turn on them with anger or with loathing,

I’ve embodied their dark quality

and they win,

so I continue inward

till I find the only tool of victory,

inward to my grasp of endless love.

©Wendy Mulhern

April 5, 2017