Imagined body:
pensive, fat-assed,
sweaty with compassion
for all. Real body?
Cold layers like
Damascus steel,
cold eye when turned
toward others’ pain,
cold and round and dry-eyed.
He tells himself
he is nearly one
to his aspiration.
He tells himself
he loves, he is
kind and as free
as his imagined body
imagines itself to be.
He stands in his imagined
place in the world
and tries to occupy it:
stiff, sharp, cold to the touch.
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