She stares down the lengths
of her profile as if she’s met
another’s face looking back
she can barely recognize
the silhouetted lines etched
into features that look so mixed
she questions who she is
an impossible twin
sheltering in her skin
looking back through the glass

her eyes are wide nets
cast into the depths
of everything worth seeking
impressions found for keeps
imaginary at best
memories left
heavy as a thousand years
locked up in a chest
baking in the desert

I lean forward into her
she smiles knowing ways
so mysterious she sways
the most ferocious beasts
to bend a knee
her gaze stares fiercely
her shadow lingers like a scent
she has a way of boring into me
like an icebreaker ship
her splayed regard
opens me nakedly

I’m a home
she can’t come
back to
with the lights off
in too large windows
and the sad lonely
picket fence
with the kids who left
a now empty nest
my present’s living memory
her future in retrospect

then I know I could starve
a day or a year
and never get used to it