by Joules Z.
March 2012

One day when the sun gleamed gold in her hair,
As she sat and stared while resting on the stairs.

Her skin still drenched in the illuminating sunlight.
As she drank and quenched in the welcoming warm sight.

Her focus fixated on an eye soothing figment,
While the rays shined and recharged all of her ligaments.

She saw in the light something that always remains dark.
That has no glimmer, no shimmer, not even a spark.

It crept in with a chill slower than snails.
When it follows, it keeps up and never fails.

Well, it sat down beside her and always had her back.
It could easily hide her, but could never attack.

As it was sentenced to silence and could never speak.
It didn’t know Spanish, nor English, nor Greek.

So how could it answer a question, since it’s simply a shadow?
Like what could it teach and what does it know?

Is it just another aspect of life that is taken for granted?
She pondered and wondered as her thoughts frantically ranted.

As the sun continued to pour its dry heat on the plants growing beside her.
She spotted a colorful creature crawling towards the unfurled leaves of a flower.

The tiny shiny salamander snuck slowly across.
Desperately reaching to make it through a forest of moss.

Gasping for breaths
Grasping for hope
Hanging on by a thread off the end of its rope.

Sizzling in a sunny desiccating sordid state.
Fizzling out, feeling like vacating its finicky fate.

Finally stretching out its front leg while on its last leg.
The sight of what it saw made it thirsty enough to beg.

She saw it seek the inviting shelter of the shadow.
Living for today, not knowing if it will make it tomorrow.
Inch by inch, one by one.
It dragged its dry legs just to get out of the sun.

The gold glowing haired girl then knew its destination.
The salamander had the same fixation on the location of its concentration.

A shimmer of glimmer hidden up ahead.
Would ensure the amphibian wouldn’t have to be dead.

The shadow sheltered the answer to what it really knows.
A place for the critter to dip its toes and solve its woes.

Wonderful wet water in a simple dimple of the soil.
No longer would it have to withstand the turmoil.

As the large suspended leaf allowed what it held below.
So the salamander slid and slipped into the shadow.

Instantly immersed into imminent immense relief.
A succulent solution that solved all its grief.

As it splashed and submerged in liquid satisfaction.
She suddenly saw what allowed the attraction.

The shadow prevent the water from drying up and kept it cool.
And essentially controlled and ruled the existence of the pool.

While hiding the creature from predators circling around.
And freeing it from fear in the niche that it found.

So since the girl witnessed the species get out of the sun and live.
She saw that the shadow was really able to give.

So if you ever see spots that the sun can’t reach.
Just know they hold worlds of secrets that remain untold by simple speech.