these marble busts of famous men
are starting to look younger

you’re a dancer   struggling
to get centered         are you middle class 

middlebrow   middle-aged
is noon truly the center of the day

doesn’t it all always change     light
to welter to heavyweight 

mean or median    what does it matter
if the center isn’t fixed—alteration

is one way to make things fit

to paint my portrait I’ll translate
myself to water     not a body 

but a medium  a state   a shimmer
—there      I’m in the corner

of your eye   a fleeting   fluid
nameless shape    a glimmer

libertine    a floater—
instance of the universal rain