Are you watching me?

The colonnade and her face glistened

In the sun neither material nor ethereal

Like a knife settling at their threshold

I entertain matters pragmatic and insubstantial

Sometimes one, more frequent both,

She often spoke in a passing tongue

Myopic imagery

Coarse but smooth; jagged but uniformly concave

Fingerprint smudges on the lenses lying on the concrete

Wind in her hair, head in the air she said

And I say of course I am watching

How could I ever forget the moment

Scratched shattered she looks up at me as if

To ask why the birds must flap their wings

Or why the neighbors carry their vegetables so loud

She throws her slippers out the window at them every morning

Cinggu, she said years ago

A wound of affection I could no longer stitch

Phrases dangling off my lips like a final drop of honey

Coating the spoon she sees her reflection

Are you watching me?