when we finally met
and started to undress,
was for me to show her where
I’d had my lipectomy,
and then to show me hers in turn.
Her request moved and amused me,
to think it was that detail, of all the details
which formed her image of me,
that would be the measure of authentication,
the key to turning those years
of distant yet intimate knowledge
and sweet shared fantasy
into corporal reality…scars and all.
As for me...I knew she was real
the first time she looked into my eyes,
and I saw myself there.