What Happens to Shadows During an Eclipse

 The wall of light could not hold back

The rushing torrent of water. 

It could not stop the stampede or the fire 

or the tanks. We were so proud of it, we spent 

So much time building it. And it proved to be

totally ineffectual against all the things

that could destroy us. But oh it was pretty. 

I guess we thought its shimmering surface 

would mesmerize the forces of chaos 

the way it mesmerized us. 

But they barreled right through

without stopping to admire the swirling colors

and glowing layers we had worked so hard

to cultivate and collect. In retrospect,

we should have used stone. We should have 

dug a moat. We should have erected

an electrified fence, thirty feet high 

and topped with razor wire. 

But we worried that would make us 

too much like them. We thought 

we would preserve our integrity

if we chose to protect ourselves

only with the most ethereal of defenses. 

And so we were enslaved, and so we suffered,

And so we died. Without glory, without dignity,

and even though -or because?- we were right.