A

A Shadow is a Gentle Lover

The shadow is the ice melting
down ravines of drowned hipbones,
beadings strung in the sunlight. 

It rubs its head between
two stones, peeling back its skin turn-
ing itself inside & out. 

A shadow as soon as this stretches
like a cad in tall seagrass. This
one casts barbed, spear-like missiles. 

Men are shadow. Women are too,
from past lives twirling inside white
mountains. Smooth, flamenco calves.

***

Photo by Alberto Lucas Pérez on Unsplash

Dana Trupa

Dana Trupa is working on her chapbook The Fourteenth Moon and Planet Joey, her full-length play. Her poems have appeared in the online literary journal Red Cedar Review, the risky and provocative “What-Rough-Beast” series by Indolent Books, and S is for Sentence. She lives and works in New York City with her cat Tana, after Carlos Santana, 'cause she's a black magic kitty.