#sonnet

lines on a young lady’s Instagram photo

My palm and pendulum thumb

discover how utterly unlike you

you look, twelve weeks ago

dining in sepia. I wonder

if the trigger of your brow, cocked just so,

was squeezed beyond the frame

that so scarcely contains

your delight at being within it.

This sleight of lens reveals

and obscures an evening now immutable.

Your self-portraiture at arm’s length

captured a moment that retreats from me,

all of a fingertip from the ennui

of such considered loveliness.

Jake Davies has had short stories and poems published in a few journals, including the most recent issue of Going Down Swinging. He has an MA from Sydney University and lives in Melbourne.