Poem-A-Day: Exhibitionism

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Image result for shakespearean theater backstage

Exhibitionism

Surrounded by souls with blank faces,
Watching my life unfold on the stage,
an intensity stabs me,
rends the scabs from my eyes
to see what I've lost.
Naked before all the pretty ones
who have opened the windows of my ambivalence; 
I feel
unlocked in a fantasia 
of wooden planks and tapestries.
My hands shake like yours,
Used to
raking
cleaving
words out with 
the happy dagger
of my immortality as a pancake girl.
Sweet, boy,
when you tear me out with eyes like a tempest.
Drown me into an ageless heroine.
Metamorphosed again tonight 
by the magic of my false impressionism.
You should have been there...
You missed quite a show.

When I reread poetry from different periods of my life, it takes me no time at all to be able to identify what literature, art, and music were also shaping my identity at the time. This one is from a Shakespeare binge. You will notice several references. I was also listening to a lot of Tori Amos (I still am; she's a perennial favorite.) Reading and revising this today, I can see heavy influences from both of these sources. It makes me feel like I've recorded all of these different versions of myself. I rather like this version of me.  

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