Wrist Deep

Shadows, greater than the men who cast them,
pasted like cut paper silhouettes
across the sidewalk, belittling the brickwork.

Architected noses. Who delineates such structures?
Hunched brows. Chins protruding like bows
of large ships with important, ubiquitous names
like “Liberation”, “Prosperity”; James, Jacob, John.

A litany of nameless faces disproportionally sent
directly away from any and all sources of light,
each more or less askew according to its angle

(and what was the name of the guy who discovered
the circumference of the Earth, surmised its measure
through lengths of shadow?)
How lovely to think
that the deeper the sun, the lower the light,
the greater the shadows we create become.