i woke up in the middle of the night

to loud screaming

coming from

glen frey the cat not the rocker

who was downstairs

in my living room 

 shrieking

not like 

a cat

but like a rocker

being attacked by something

 i

carefully

crept

down

the

stairs

tiptoeing

expecting to find him

in a death match

with a

massive rabid opossum

or

grizzly bear

or?

as i got closer

i saw who he was

running from

and

terrified of

and

 his enemy

was his own shadow. 

running and running and running

in a circle 

it was

chasing him

nonstop

 he was terrified

running for his own survival

 i shut off the lights

called his name

 pet him

talked to him

after a while

he calmed down

finally

he laid down

exhausted

 heart pounding

i thought about

the many things 

that he might have

had to endure 

before he was rescued

and

understood 

that it all felt very real to him

as if those things were happening to him all over again

but now

he was home

and

he was safe once more.

—
“everything that we see is a shadow

cast by that which we do not see.”

– martin luther king, jr.

—

credits: universal pictures, google images