ANTIPENUMBRAL

I am grateful that bears
(Or was it smugglers? Memory
Never agrees twice running)
Gave me in a dream new papers
Proving beyond doubt
That I exist. But I am uneasy.
When I sleep my shadow
Arrives late and disheveled.
If a cat walks by my shadow
Abandons me and follows it.
Days later Franz Kafka
Or Elinor Glynn or both
Send me insistent visions
That my shadow -- again!--
Needs to post bail.