Friend or Foe

Good title that references Trishia Brown

Its peculiar dance carefully follows my body's every move. 

Each quick stride,

each slow step,

          each simple gesture,

each intricate maneuver.

I feel its presence silently watching, waiting, following. Am I guiding it or is it guiding me?  I try to creep away from my unwanted escort, but with each small movement, its unforgiving presence becomes more apparent than with the last.  Its menacing loom fills my body with an un-ignorable feeling of paranoia.  The persecution overcomes me, its relentlessness pries and seethes at me until I must face this mimicking stranger.  

What is it doing? Why its fascination with me?

It twists and transforms, shortens and expands, obscuring itself until it becomes unrecognizable.  One moment it draws together, shrinks and blackens. The next moment, it reaches outward growing taller yet dimmer. Its drastic proportions stretch across walls, scathe around corners, and seep into cracks. Its borders, once precise, become blurred. Its opacity, once faint, blackens everything in its path. 

Its unpredictability becomes calculable.  Its mystery no longer leaves me weary.  In my forced curiosity, I become fond of this silent drifter. It is the synchronization where light and darkness meet, join and are one.  It extends out from my toes, and brushes over all in our path.  It is my magical protector. With each quick breath I inhale, it breathes too, expanding ever so slightly. With each careful step, it steps too, trembling ever so softly.  With each sway of my body, it sways too, ever so gracefully.  It is a separate presence, yet one, different yet familiar, its every movement is mine though all the more beautiful in its abstraction.

Calmness sets in.

I am not afraid.  I step into the fog and its dark blanket relinquishes from my side.  The misty air stamps out the light and so at the same time, my trusted friend.