I heard a story

I never had a name until my father gave me one,

As he made his hands dance on the cave walls that shadowed the rippling flames into funny animals and shapes

I felt a tumble of squeaks flow out of my mouth

He said that was called laughter,

I never knew how warm a laugh could make my cold, undead body feel

He named me Shadow & Daughter & I felt like a real person for the first time in my life

I heard of a story

Once upon a time, when humans ruled the earth…

The humans believed everything was beneath them

Every squirming worm, every crawling ant, every roaring lion

They could master all by their wicked hand

Even some humans were deemed less than others by the way they talked,

Didn’t talk,

Felt or looked,

Until the undead could walk

Now we rule the skies

Humans go underground

I never understood an aching heart but I knew what it dreamed like

I dreamed of this warmth that laughter has given me

How I learned what a family felt like before I knew the words

I heard a story once where humans looked at screens but not at each other

Laughter was muted to a single line

The joy was vicariously felt through metal and glass

The pain was mastered by a useless mirror

That reflected nothing but a mocking symbol

Of what they used to be

My father taught me of stories that made me tremble, cry, laugh

I fear for my kind, human and undead,

My father deemed me his daughter the moment we laughed about the funny shadows on the cave wall

When the blood rivers ran deep & the hatred wells were overflowing

My grounding was laughter

This joy that radiates over my entire soul like a canopy of warmth

Roots that my father told me

Exactly when he knew

I was his family forever

I joined him and papa too

Now my machine-like heart churned into a dreaming, aching, loving heart

Swooning over a human boy my age

We laugh about silly things too

Building a story of something special

“Shadow, Shadow, Shadow,” I hear this boy say

It sounds like something beautifully airy and melting sweet…

I think we gonna be together

Even impossibly,

Some sunny, funny day.

I had once heard of stories but they were never told to me

I heard of a story

I thought they were just fantasy

That a story was even something I could have

Now within me,

So many stories are building

So many laughs are climbing out of me

I cannot speak but so much love is pouring from my heart

I heard a story once

Now with my humming laughter, the beginning I will start.