self portrait #4: i am this poem
i look like the lipstick on a collar, this piece of pansy
a vulnerable dream made pink with bleach and a vigorous spin cycle
i come out easily with toxic chemicals and listerine
only the faint remains, an unconscious trace of lines
forgotten, remembered in a present mind
and now they ask who i am
i am invisible words on a page
parallel between the lines
between the messages scrawled
on the bathroom stall
at 2AM.
i am a nameless faceless ninety-five pages
of text nailed against a heartless king's door
with a complaint for a face for an age
an image of the who and the who i am
like myself and me and i
i am a loveless easy speak on a page without signature
a sensation pressed on pale leather like a hot brand
an icon, a piece of eye, a configuration of fingerprints
smeared while writing on a wall
with my loaded pencil
i am visible words on a page
lines of parallel between
the messages scrawled
on the bathroom stall
at 2AM.
i am this poem
JANEisnotplain ’05
