Echoes Beyond the Shadow

by M. Joseph Boehler

chasing echoes of the past,

we never touch the present;

inevitability ripples the surface,

distorting any sense of our way.

ethereal dreams alight,

time unwinds, a river of flow,

beyond the shadow of all we know.

—

Author's Note: "Echoes Beyond the Shadow" is how the past, future, and present blur together. How we chase the reverberations of what's gone, while standing in the shadow of everything we think we know, both distorting our sense of the present. The poems closing line beckons us past the veil of darkness, urging a meditation on the singular, ever-present now.