alphabet-line style
"O simple ones, learn prudence; acquire intelligence, you who lack it." --Proverbs 8:5, New Oxford Annotated

Proverbs 8:5

“An apple for your thoughts,” I
break the silence.
Could shoulders shiver
death back with a glance? I
enjoy the
frivolity of
guessing
heedless of reason;
instead of fact, I embrace the
joy of
keeping to the shadows
(like I
might ever melt into the
newborn snow if
one day I said, “I only
pretend to be happy,” and instead
quivered wretchedly and
ripped the knees out of my jeans in
some fit of
tragedy). And,
unconvinced by the platitudes you offer,
vow to misjudge you
whenever possible. You reply tinnily, like an out-of-tune
xylophone; I stow away the sound for when I'm home and bored. (“The
zenith has come?” I ask, and tense to run.) Score.

Patrick McFarland
"I embrace the joy of keeping to the shadows". A great line in a great (and very unique) poem!