Sometimes at night
When we flip on the light
We think a shadow is a thing.
In the daytime, it’s called hearsay—
Or certainty, when it’s lecturing.
Only trust your eyes,
The master, da Vinci, said,
And today I looked
At his masterpiece of shadows
Lately risen from its shadowy bed.
It tells the ancient story
Of a shadow, once a shadow, and reviled.
A scientist is a shadow,
Clarifying the shadows to the shadows.
But this shadow, I swear, it smiled.