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.
