Today's poem is by Charles Jensen

When I Was Straight
        after Maureen Seaton

I was transparent—

                        —a window boys looked through

        and saw an unpeopled place.

                I was too much—

                                                and often, too little—

these lands could not sustain crops

                        or love

                                        or the imagination of desire.

                I knew if only they'd

come close enough—

                                        they'd see the phantom within me—

They'd see

                                        a faint reflection—

                They'd see

themselves.

Copyright © 2025 Charles Jensen All rights reserved
from When I Was Straight: A Tribute to Maureen Seaton
Small Harbor Publishing
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission