Poetry International Poetry International
Poem

Eleanor Hooker

THE SHADOW OWNER\'S COMPANION

THE SHADOW OWNER\'S COMPANION

THE SHADOW OWNER\'S COMPANION

Solitary. She’s been around for so long now, we simply
co-exist. I know she’s there. At night she rocks in the left
corners of our bedroom; her chair held together with my fear
of the dark. She stays there, mostly, in the dark. Sometimes,
she sleeps at the bottom of the lake. She wakes me in my dreams
and I ignore her, but then she does her special trick; hovers just
above me, her weight not on me. I spoon up to you, ‘I’m frightened,’ I say,
‘mind me’. And you warm me not to tell. My dreams, they frighten
you too. I won’t look at her; I know she could never be unseen, unheard of,
for ever and ever.
Close

THE SHADOW OWNER\'S COMPANION

Solitary. She’s been around for so long now, we simply
co-exist. I know she’s there. At night she rocks in the left
corners of our bedroom; her chair held together with my fear
of the dark. She stays there, mostly, in the dark. Sometimes,
she sleeps at the bottom of the lake. She wakes me in my dreams
and I ignore her, but then she does her special trick; hovers just
above me, her weight not on me. I spoon up to you, ‘I’m frightened,’ I say,
‘mind me’. And you warm me not to tell. My dreams, they frighten
you too. I won’t look at her; I know she could never be unseen, unheard of,
for ever and ever.

THE SHADOW OWNER\'S COMPANION

Sponsors
Gemeente Rotterdam
Nederlands Letterenfonds
Stichting Van Beuningen Peterich-fonds
Prins Bernhard cultuurfonds
Lira fonds
Versopolis
J.E. Jurriaanse
Gefinancierd door de Europese Unie
Elise Mathilde Fonds
Stichting Verzameling van Wijngaarden-Boot
Veerhuis
VDM
Partners
LantarenVenster – Verhalenhuis Belvédère