IMAGINING OTHERS

If the way we imagine others
think of us keeps changing, then
when the lover, that model of
one who holds nothing back,
opens up and is surprised by
misunderstanding, any attempt
to slip into role is bound to fail,

another sign of the self’s fragility.
Just ask yourself if a woman’s
hips can skew in a manner more
complex than any indiscretion
you can dream up, or the shaded
door she stands before be, as she
says, about to engulf you forever.