Shadow

To, eponymous.

Sacrilegious, hedonistic, scheming, vengeful;
Angry, aggressive, virulent, violent
Agent of destruction, influencing the psyche.
Why must you make me your slave, take over the reins?
You are not welcome in this world.

Why won't you show me some consideration?
Instead, you would be the master, faceless and formless, reckless and insufferable.
Cut it off, they said; immoral beast, troglodyte. Hard to argue with their Reason.
Alas, Reason you do not understand, primal roots digging deep,
And the Death of you will be the Death of me.
Write about it, she said, 'cause I sure as hell ain't dealing with that.
Make some music, I thought, channel the flow.
With no clue how to dam a flood,
The conscious making way for the autonomous.

Assimilate it, He said. Stay aware of it, do not identify with it.
Let it come, let it be, let it go, He said. The effort will be Herculean.
What vile sorcery is that, I thought. Surely exaggerated?
But I try anyway.
And maybe your chains constrict less now.
Perhaps one day, you will simply be my unruly friend.
But please, for the love of everything and everyone precious to me,
Leave me the reins, they bear my name.

It was the curse of mankind that these incongruous faggots^[1] were thus bound together that in the agonised womb of consciousness, these polar twins should be continuously struggling. How, then, were they dissociated?
— R. L. Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Cover art by Timothy Dykes.