Past contradictions
reflect from her shaking body,
and you think her laugh
is at your joke.
A thirty-year-old word
has spawned that frown,
and you think it was
your fault.
If her broad smile lightens your load,
be careful, my friend.
She remembers one from long ago
and has you mistaken.
Her present is old,
her past is present.
You are but a substitute,
an illumined image.