SHADOW DOWN

I walk through sunlight that would welcome
even the most callous gallows-man, past the first
crocuses and lilies of the season, gathered in eager garden pews, just unbending
their tender heads toward prayer.
I walk past the dormant up-thrust,
the quickening veins, sprung of the frame I have so long tried to hammer down,
roofless in the rain under all this sunlight, uncertain where to set my shadow,
even now.