It is a thing       It is a condition
              of ppl w/ my affliction
(the affliction of Transsexuality)

to imagine the shape
                of our faces
                      in a year          

                            The shape
                          of our faces
                                   in two         

   To imagine
   forearmwristnipplefore
   headbuttocks        

                      The geometry
            of our recent
            futures

(That’s what they say in Spanish
                for the near future—el futuro
                            reciente)       

    As much as I try     I cannot
    imagine the geometry
    of my not so recent futures

curved        &        cutting
          carrots into wheels
                          at the counter

In the plaza       I watch
                a family of men bend
                to kiss

their sitting father
                   or grandfather
    or great-grandfather

          on the curve
                     of his
        pickling head

            the geometry of recent & not
so recent futures––        a crowd of men
            kissing in the sun       

                        In the plaza           a baby
              in a leopard print shearling coat         
reaches up

                  & plants a baby palm
             flush against my lumbar
                                     while I sit

the leopard print baby’s
                            mother looking on &
              gossiping in something slavic            

                       The baby––
                        a recent future & no future
       at all        (see Edelman)

                        I am speaking of metaphors
        of a body    & then a body & then
                            a body      

               All the same one     
               all attempting
               to pass through time

    & to contend w/ its geometry
                That’s what they call object
                permanence  

That’s what they call the water
   of the river               & then
              the water of the river

               As the proverb goes          
                        I cannot stand
          in the same body twice