Shadow Dance

We cannot help but cast a shadow,
wherever we walk a trail of darkness
follows.

This is our nature.

We light a fire for our Lord,
and we burn down his world, blinded by
Love.

This is our nature.

We carry flowers to an altar for our Lord,
and once more we leave a wake
of loss.

This is merely our nature.

We live lives of lasting loss—
a loss of knowing
all the lives we cost.

But so long as we live for Love
we might feel a deep sense of solace
in knowing that we,
ever troubled, ever shadow ridden we,
get the privilege
of so much as getting to dance with the light.

This is the nature of our being.

Hannah Arin is a junior at Pitzer College pursuing a double major in religious studies and philosophy.