Rules of Shadow Boxing
By John GreyI've been out in the square with the shadow boxers.
Why bother with the flesh and blood of people
when I can watch their movement on the wall.
How slick they are when there's no content.
They move like thoughts do when unattended by meaning.
Turn the lamp on lover, I say,
I want to see your body float among the spiders.
Stand in front of the movie lights.
You'll look great as a great gray lump atop a kiss.
And yes, I was in the store with the shadow shoppers
and, at the ballpark, where silhouettes ran outside the bases.
I stared at one building and saw the building opposite.
No need to scan the sky for clouds when their shape is at my feet.
So flaunt yourself below the bulb, lover.
You will spread in all directions.
I can touch your nothingness in the carpet,
feel your phantom in the wood.
I have been wherever shadow boxers fight the good fight.
Nobody wins, nobody loses, the only knockout now
is darkness.
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