Selfie

self-portrait, Francis Bacon 

You step into the room, see yourself

look up from somewhere distant.

Your eyes reflect a safe interior,

without the anxiety of an unwanted stare.

Windows open to new air.

You stand unadorned

apart from the self-scorn

you wear around your neck.

Here is a place with no mirrors, no squinting,

thrust against the space between you.

Stretch out your arm, capture a forever moment

of the skin genuine, sweat-soaked and intimate. 

tk/December 2013 

Last month the word "selfie" was announced by the Oxford English Dictionary as "word of the year".

R.A.D. Stainforth's lovely bewhiskered read: 

Join Magpie Tales creative writing group.