CCW Finalist, Poetry
Night Shadows by Jeannine Tupper


(after Edward Hopper)


tonight I am the woman with a knife          

	             alone afraid          wanting to kill        

	the pain  . . .    trying to cross over            

					      that great empty space


where even my shadow extends itself behind me

	determined to be           . . .         something

		       grizzly          with a snout . . .       and fangs 

				     
what used to be the corner drugstore

	                              casts an ever-lengthening beam   

	                                                                and tonight refuses 

to be transformed 
				
		into anything but what it is
	
	         			 indivisible darkness

Jeannine Tupper