Shade Soul

The shade has a soul of its own.
In some tales, the shade is the soul.
In some tales, the shade folds like cloth.

In some tales, the shade has a voice.
In most tales, it does not. The shade
Cut from flesh is a could-not-be,

Not a could-be-but-has-not-been.
This is a myth. The tale that holds
The truth’s a tale that could not be,

Like that fool who sold shade for gold
To a strange Grey Man who sliced shade
To fold up like a cloth, soul’s ghost.

All the ways to say what myth is
Are wrong if they don’t get this: myth
Claims truth’s a tale that could not be.

There’s hard shade where the light’s blocked, not
Gone, just less. Then there’s ghost shade: myth.
Myth is that soul of the shade’s own.