A Poet Reflects

I imagine your loverlessness,
how you kiss your own reflection in the glass.
In every street I see you,
making paths for my feet, my high shoes
laced with the widest ribbon.

My hat is broad as your shoulders,
my afternoonish dress long and loose
for lying down in.

—Medbh McGuckian, opening lines to “Reverse Cinderella” from Captain Lavender (Wake Forest University Press, 1991)