Living in the Shallows

Living in the Shallows



There's many
a living thing

that prefers
the darkness,

like sluggish sloths,
whose sense
of smell

is so acute
they know

what trees
are healthy

and can swing
comfortably

from branch to branch
in total darkness,

like swarthy, restless
sightless bats,

who use the sounds
of their prey
to find them,

like man---

where light reveals
the scary, murky
depths

in the shadows
we drag behind us.

Gil Hoy

Gil Hoy's poems have appeared, or will be appearing, most recently in Tipton Poetry Journal, Chiron Review, The New Verse News, Right Hand Pointing, MisfitMagazine, Mobius: Journal of Social Change, One Sentence Poems, Ariel Chart and elsewhere.