Mad Shadows

Mad shadows dance in the corners of my room See them sink like paint into the walls Hellfire! If they had caught me unawares Where’s the game in that, my friends, I’d be dead but I have eyes in the back of my head. All shades have names, and histories, too Once crouched like me in shells banded by light, All definition’s now gone, sparest contrast, and color Imperceptible new moon black, ultraviolet, infrared…I know, for I have eyes in the back of my head. Ragged words, a crone’s alkaline snicker, What do they know, what have they learned, what secrets Have they witnessed with a hanging jury’s bored deliberation Though I have smoked their schemes, in my dreamless bed I have their eyes on the back of my head.