SHADOWING

Some say I resemble you and I do
But as a shadow, casually cast.
You were born at the moment
Sharp eyes became uncertain
If a thread was blue or green
So I see things invisible to see.
It disconcerts me to find that,
Long years before I was born,
You walked lands I thought mine
By grace and right of first discovery.
I have had to haul down my flags
And tell the kings that lands I claimed
In their names were never theirs at all.
Reflecting sometimes that we both
Have always been fond of shadows
(Also ghosts, dreams, frogs,
Mirrors, snapdragons and parables)
I am almost, for a while, content.