Mad Shadows

Mad shadows dance in the corners of my room
See them sink like paint into the decor
Hellfire! If they had caught me unawares
Where’s the game in that, my friends, I’d be dead but

I have eyes in the back of my head

All shades have names, and histories, too
Once crouched like me in shells banded by light,
All definition’s gone now, sparest contrast, and color
Imperceptible new moon black, ultraviolet, infrared…I know, for

I have eyes in the back of my head

Ragged words, a crone’s alkaline snicker,
What do they know, what have they learned, what secrets
Have they witnessed with a hanging jury’s bored deliberation
Though I have smoked their schemes, in my dreamless bed

I have their eyes in the back of my head.