The (Secret) Intimacy of the Photograph
it is me and it is not me
I transfix on the profile of An Other
with my legs, covered in rose-garden pantyhose
a shape a size a landscape, unfamiliar
to my mind’s mirror
yet there I am
me but not me
such displacement
or dysmorphia or
such rabid ability to despise
disrespect, such refusal of acceptance
a bizarre reality
it is me and it is not me
VANESSA SHIELDS, writer 