My Shadow Carries the Secrets I Don’t Say

By [Hazrat ali]

I walk with light upon my face,

But always trailing, keeping pace,

There lingers one I can’t betray—

My shadow, dark and tucked away.

It stretches long in morning sun,

Then folds behind me when days are done.

It never asks, it never tells,

But stores my truths in silent wells.

Each time I bite back words unspoken,

Each dream denied, each promise broken,

Each sorrow swallowed with a grin—

It catches all and tucks them in.

My shadow knows the nights I cried

With fists clenched tight and swollen pride,

The smiles I wore like borrowed skin

While thunder echoed deep within.

It bends but never runs away,

It stands through every stormy day.

It holds my shame, my quiet grace,

The rage I hide behind my face.

No diary holds as much as it—

The secrets where my truths quietly sit.

It’s heavy, yes, but loyal too,

A version of me stripped of view.

So when I walk and no one's near,

And silence hums too loud to bear—

I glance behind, and there it stays,

My shadow, shaped from all I’d say.

It bears my weight, it shares my name,

And carries all I leave untamed.

A mirror made of dusk and gray—

My shadow holds what I won’t say.