Dibs on Kai's "Shadows" starts with a familiar fear: the dark, and the way we hide from it under the covers. The speaker says we're afraid of the unknown, of what we might find, even of what the dark "can and will do." But then the poem turns the idea around. The thing we fear at night is actually our shadow, which has been with us all along.
From there, the mood shifts from nervous to oddly tender. The shadow cries when we cry, laughs when we laugh, and walks beside us, behind us, or ahead. It stays close even when we sneak off to be alone. The speaker calls it a "lifetime friend" that "never speaks but always agrees," which is both comforting and a little eerie, since it's a friend with no opinions of its own.
The ending is quiet and a bit sad. When we're lowered into the earth, the shadow goes with us. The poem suggests that what scares us may be the most loyal company we have.