Lorraine Doran
PORTRAIT
Today I saw a perfect
imprint of myself
in the sheets and imagined
my life without me
the shape of my absence
when I am at last transparent
when I am both the snow globe
and the miniature inside it
so many beautiful things
have happened to me
I can tell the difference
between the ocean
and anything: the night sky
and the way grief comes
at you in waves
sometimes the whole
body is an elegy
and it is hard
when a finch hits the window
to leave it but we must
imagine ourselves happy
as the joys grow smaller
we hold them
fiercely in our teeth.