Smita Tewari              

Shadows

Closing in upon me are shadows, with fears of a calamity
which may never come my way,
which may never occur, but they engulf me, all the same.

As the world turns away, I feel the shadows lengthening,
growing more real,
youth receding from me, with no burden of immediate guilt.

I am flung around in an uncaring, unfamiliar world,
where even my own don't
care to enter or be seen, they have their priorities.