Dodo and Celia

You are never completely aware of the shadow
You cast. You see it elongated on the grass
At the end of a walk. I am my own sundial.
Gnomic. Prim, high-minded and protective.
To try to catch your own profile is to miss it
Chasing a glimpse, as when she was a kitten
With a scrap of paper tied to a string.
Why do the words appear backwards?
Because the camera is disposed to let you see
Yourself as in a mirror and not as the world
Sees you and so the world must be reversed.
The optician swore she saw no resemblance.
Said she’d worked there thirteen years
And never found a pair of glasses she likes.
I look at your shadow to try and understand
My own. I’m like that, not like that, am I?
The cat belongs to neither of us, is looking
In the other direction, thinking of going.