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.