Reputation

The dissociations of your name reflect your feminine side,

The constraint imposed as you grow pulls you

Away from what formerly held you inside,

While the masculine in you, reveres the connection to

Where you’re from.

The male draws the lines, the female colors in the shape, asking the same

Question in different ways: are you where I started?

And how am I different now? Is this far enough?

Is this too far for me to recognize it’s you?

It wasn’t until I read your poetry that I saw, fully, what is in you.

I thought it might be true, but that’s not completely true, and what I need to see is absolute truth.

The problem with reputation is that of any label

Which accretes layers of meaning as it

Is approached from differing directions.

There is only one circumstance where it truly doesn’t matter,

And that is where you are entirely exposed.

What if that were my requirement?

Can you surrender completely

In abject victory

As Kali dances on Shiva?

A reputation is a promise, a form

Of fidelity, in which one says this is

What I am, trust me on that.