reflexes of my reflection

iv

i did.
you did.
we did, didn’t we?

i watched
you watch
the stars
falling on my watch.

i wrote
you, wrote
right down the road.

i won
you, won
a little wan,
we were one,
the shadow of my sun.


v

i do
you, do
not i?

i part,
you part,
we’re apart,
yet moving as one.

how can i alter your ego,
my alter ego
if i’m bound to be gone
like the way we began
a long time ago…

when
i caught
you caught
in the middle of
catch-twenty-two
mocking the mocking-
bird that flew?

and you cried,
“i want to rest, oh,
my mind needs to rest!…”


vi

(i will,
you will,
we’ll both get well
as well).

…and you cried
as you cry now
the tears you longed to cry.

and i will cry
(won’t i?) and whisper
to crying lot of forty-nine,
“you may rest now,
take your mind to rest,
never mind the rest!”

and will howl
at the others,
“i’ll slaughter
you, slaughterers
inside the slaughter-
house number five!”

now you see
the talking me,
talking like
i talk to my hand
in this literal paradox
of literary parody
(balderdash!)

squint a little
and you’ll see
i lost the numbers
i, ii, and iii,
and that you and i
were never
we. 

xdelax-08/2008