The left side of your face turns toward the mirror.
Shadow face, dissolving into its own shadows,
The dark streak not an absence of sun.
Your own vein coursing under your skin, why should you not
See into flesh, your own flesh, the flesh of others?
Do not be afraid it means nothing.
Nothing to me, Nothing to you, the terror of a
Nothingness keeps us safe, away, where people are encased
As neatly as dogs in fur, a little bareness
Around the eyes, the gums, the few places
Peeking through the mask.

Secret person, secret radar through the
Day, scurry home to write it down.
Bombard the void with words
Like a blood-letting, seek
Some healing, some release.
Emptiness fills itself again,
Swells with agony and sweetness of a
World, incomprehensible, made of
Comprehension.

And that is my delight, she said,
Stronger than the green budding May
That moved him, that is my
Forever. She twisted a hazel leaf in her
Fingers, nudged last year’s acorn with her
Toe. The sun that fell on him passed through
Her without touching. Her eyelids lowered
And she gazed at him
Envying the solidness
Of his dimension, quivering
Ether-like in her own, thinking
About leaving him.