The Mirror

Stretched out, I pull the knot tight
in the muscles of the slackened body
and along the veins hidden for years —
I lay their fatty wisdom
into the folds — curves of balding brows
outline the wandering gaze.
The body falls asleep — clumsy as
a thought chased off that has come back —
its greasy folds — in fat flesh —
hidden, the reed-thin desires
with sweaty fingers I clutch
memories of someone else,
long since gone

1996