SAME RIVER

“You cannot,” said Heraclitus,
“Step into the same river twice.”
“You’re on!” I said and so
We spent the rest of the night
Jumping in and out of rivers;
We both caught colds.
Turns out he was right
Though some of the rivers
Were quite similar the second time.

Heraclitus, though, after a few drinks,
Can never leave well alone.
“If  horses,” he said, “had a god,
He would look like a horse.”
“I’ve got you there!” I answered
“The God of Horses is my fifth cousin.”
(Due to an unwise bargain I have
An uncountable number of cousins;
They're like the pillars at Stonehenge)
“He looks nothing like a horse.”
There was no choice, of course,
But to visit my cousin who lives
Some versts north of the last subway stop
In the Bronx. For my mother’s sake,
Pitr welcomed us warmly
After innumerable cups of tea
He showed us around. Though as a god
He has access to infinities, his apartment
Was small, and crowded with the ghosts
Of horses. Horse angels were constantly
Coming and going and horse prayers
Were piled so high that miracles were needed
To keep them from crashing down.

"Alright then," said Heraclitus, "you try
Coming up with something pithy and memorable
Which wittily illuminates the human condition!"
"How about 'The weed of crime bears bitter fruit?’ "
"Wasn't that The Shadow's motto?"
"It was. You didn't ask for originality.
And didn't Xenophanes say that horse thing?"
Heraclitus shrugged and thought for a moment.
"You know," he said finally, "the weed of crime
Is, properly considered, a vegetable."

ROOMER

One thing that surprised my father’s ghost

When he rented rooms in Kamianka Strumilowa

Was to find  The Shadow as a fellow boarder.

Every morning, he’d see The Shadow leave

For his job of knowing what evil lurked

In the hearts of men. (This was before

The Shadow fought crime; in those days

He contented himself with knowing.)

Quite late at night, my father

Might glimpse him coming home to eat

Small servings of unappealing leftovers.

Some weeks there was a shortage of evil

And The Shadow’s rent would be late.

Others, there was so much evil that my father

Would be sent off with a piece of chalk

To mark evil for The Shadow to know

Once he had a few spare minutes again.

WHO KNOWS

The Shadow made a list when he was nine

Of things he wanted to know as did his friend

The Evil That Lurks in the Hearts of Men.

First on his list was the Latin names

Of all the trees and plants in Galicia.

(The Evil That Lurks wanted most to know

How to tie a clove hitch one-handed.) Later,

When the Mutual Broadcasting System

Had decided they would promote The Shadow

To cultural archetype he suggested

That the narrator might suitably intone

“Who knows the Latin names of Polish trees?”

Though Margo Lane explained to him

He never really understood why Blue Coal

(“Let The Shadow and Blue Coal Protect Your Home!”

Rejected the idea so adamantly.

ROOTS

The Shadow had the mysterious ability

To cloud mens minds. He had learned it

From his aunt, Euphonia Penumbra,

Whose elusive beauty destroyed three empires

Seven kingdoms and two grand duchies

As well as badly crumpling a republic

And irritating a loose federation.