Portrait

i carved her from a painting
traced the lines of her thighs
with a dull razorblade
crying, she said it hurt
i dont know who she is
but she looks familiar

i let her dance on my hand for a while
so ugly          beautiful
took one too many pictures and filed them
i lost track of the number of libraries

she took the shape of a star
oneday but then
i cut off each of her points
shaved her wrists, cleaned her stomach
set her out to dry
put her away in the back
she bled in blue

later she appeared to me
mimicking my hands
smiling          gagging
as i fixed my face in the mirror

©6/10/03 empress