Self-Portrait of the Author as Linoleum Tile

I speak out loudly enough

As bodies and bodies

Pass by and pass by.

Eyes and eyes and eyes and eyes,

Invited and assailed by other sights,

Pass by and pass by,

Perhaps looking, perhaps unlooking,

Responding or not responding

As I speak out loudly enough,

and I sit, and grow harder and darker;
I grow older and perhaps even colder

As bodies and bodies

Pass by and pass by,

and eyes and eyes and eyes and eyes,

Invited and assailed by other sights,

Pass by and pass by,

Perhaps looking, perhaps unlooking,

Responding or not responding

As I speak out loudly enough.

Someday, I will be overlaid,

By someone newer and lighter replaced.

The new will speak out loudly enough

As bodies and bodies

Pass by and pass by,

and eyes and eyes and eyes and eyes,

Invited and assailed by other sights,

Pass by and pass by,

Perhaps looking, perhaps unlooking,

Responding or not responding.

If one great mind ever stands atop me,

It will have been enough.