Shadow People

Do you see me

I’m the one in the

Back of the photograph

Head down

Blending like a shadow

The quiet one

The one the other children

made fun of

Friends were something

That others had

There was no reason

To get close

Time grows on you

It weighs on you like sediment

Slowly building

Until you can no longer

Lift your head

Then the Earth

Consumes you once again

I’m the one that you don’t see

You know I’m here by these words

You’ve caught glimpses of me

in the hallways

you’ve seen me

out of the corner of your eye

as I drove by

but few of you really know me

that’s the way it is

with people like me

We are the shadow people

The ones that are there

But not fully there

We see you though

We watch

We see

We know who the good ones are

We know who the mean ones are

We wish we could become a part

Of something

But even when we do

We fade

We fade in to the shadows

We prefer to walk the hallways

In the darkness

The shadow world is our home

The next time you see a ghost

Look real close

It might just be one of us

One of the shadow people

That have faded so much

That they can no longer

Touch your world

Who created us

Was it us

Did we just feel so out of place

That we faded into the shadows

Or was it you

Always being better

Always having to be right

Always overpowering others

In your attempt to keep

from being one of us

We are the shadow people

We are many

But we don’t matter

As long as you’re happy

And you can be seen