Dear John

Please excuse the way I look, I was born with a body. Actually,
strike that, have gratitude for the ability to look at me at all.
I tell you I am shallow, vain, obsessed with beauty, but I do not want
to be perceived and you say sorry I thought you were describing me.
So you agree, we both are shallow, vain, obsessed with beauty.
What water sign behavior. In reality, my body mirrors wave, mirrors
spectre, mirrors salt ring and knife in dirt, mirrors saint statutes
and translucence, mirrors queerness, mirrors scar deep pink
then purple then white, mirrors time and age,
injury and surgeon’s meticulous nature,
mirrors cell mutation and all variants of apathy,
mirrors a childhood mired with pleasure seeking and danger,
an adulthood of worse, mirrors the word satiate
as if it doesn’t exist in the English language,
mirrors whole cities of birth and death, of potential and ruin,
of all the various gods of living who, at the altar, we are sacrificed,
mirrors that I have been alive, and continue to, far beyond
what I ever dreamed possible. Nevermind on the overlooking
or forgiveness, on second thought, feel free to stare
until I tell you not to.