I want my people

to look at me and say
there is something different
about me they can’t
put a name on.  Want to have
a new face that somehow

already fits with my old name,
a face that seems strange and
exhilarating yet
utterly comfortable
and familiar at the same time,
as if I’d died and been reborn

as my own better replica,
my soft corners sharp enough once again
to startle a friend
into renewed affection, lift
a lover back into passion, prod
myself into waking refreshed

from what had seemed a near-dead sleep.