Where was I in the world? I’m not so certain
Anymore. Assembling & dissembling. The pane of circumstance
Broken always by one’s own reflections. Inscriptions of the “you.”
Think about it long enough, & you really start to seem
Like somebody. Really, anybody. Maybe
That’s who I’ve been all along, just this restless anybody
Assembling the reflections along the windows of drugstores, dress shops,
Fruit sellers, hair stylists, stationery specialists & health food/
Supplement wizards on Main Street—no, it really is
Called “Main Street”—walking as I always walk with all of
The beautiful & bored, all of us waiting for our cell phones to ring
With that new identity, any new identity, offered us by editors,
Family friends, lovers, or even our lovers’ lovers, fated enemies,
Former companions now in exile in Connecticut, or really anybody
Who sees right through the somebody we are. So I always hate
Those calls, from anybody who tries to tell me something
About the somebody I might be or should be or could be
In the new movie they’re making about the story of my life,
Or the new version of the old movie of my life, the one I was so
Good in acting as myself, so good in fact that nobody really knew
I was acting. Of course (I say modestly) anybody, really anybody
Could have played that role. Still, Infanta, the producer, calls to say,
“This is the chance of a lifetime, don’t pass up this part! This
Movie I’m making starring you (& well, starring me, too, who
Knows you better than anybody—if anybody knows anybody,
Though, of course, I do, I mean, know you…!)…So in this movie
I’m making there’s nobody but us, it’s an us-against-the-world
Kind of movie, & I know from all of your old work
It’s just the part you’re made for, & not just anybody could do it,
So—I’m telling you—it’s a killer role. In fact, I can say
Right now that I’d stake my life on it, but
So would, well, I mean, so would anybody…Sweetheart, this is
The role you’ve always dreamt of & were always meant to play.”