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.