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.
