They tell me to tilt my head.
Then gazing through the lens,
they flinch. It’s daytime—
I know what I am, an antiseptic swab.
But at night, when the dark
softens me into mirage,
if you saw me through a window
as I crept through the woods,
you would begin to dream
of other worlds and imagine
me a messenger, wondering
as I do, what I might reveal
if ever I drew close.

 
 

Photo: Mirage by Eric Vondy