the wall and self-portrait
on the wall behind you
you have swirled the paint
into looking as if the air
around your head is agitated
your eyes look off in different
directions, ear still whole but
(which one did you cut off anyway?)
your knitted brow gives you your
desperate look and the green
shadows under and around your
right eye and smeared across your
left cheek promote your lizard quality
while the two reds of your beard hang
and drip making me expect to see the
drops on your coat that does little more
than enclose some of the swirling wall
behind you
if i look hard enough the swirls
swallow you, your self-assertion slight
as the hint of curiosity on the face
of a long practicing strumpet
