Sixteen ways of looking at a blackbird
How many ways of looking at a girl?
Slim, white skinned, brown hair
Through glasses the tip
Of an upturning nose, curved chin
Face etched like the shadow of trees on glass.
If there are sixteen ways of looking at a blackbird
How do you look at a girl?
In how many ways?
Girl on glass, in glass
In her mirror, in your mind
Slim, slim and slim again
White on dark steps with apple
Pose held perfect to pink toenails
Wrapped in a towel.
If there are sixteen ways of looking at a blackbird
How do you look at a girl?
Girl with flute, long stemmed crying girl
Plucked in a vase
Shadow on glass and grass
Smudged smile run crooked
Sixteen ways of looking at a blackbird
White girl painted to the fingertips
Skims in how many ways?
In legs and eyes and hair
And you dream of slender bones and hips
(Blackbird sits on her fingertips)
Caught in paper or in glass
Bitter lemons and love. Or lust
Indifference û you try to make her cry
(Blackbird sings from her painted lips)
And run before the tears are dry
You should have written this poem, not I
Sixteen ways of looking at a blackbird.