Linda 02

The Poem

She is looking at you now.Not away. At you.With the expression of a womanwho has been looked at her entire lifeand has decided the looking goes both ways.

I see you seeing me

The suit is the second layer.In the first piece — the mask,the permission to hide the famous faceso the rest of her could finally be visible.

Here — the armor.The constructed body of every woman ever drawnby someone who loved the shapemore than the person inside it.

She is wearing it on her own terms.That is the difference. That is everything.

The dotted line.Across her chest. The cutting line. The pattern line.The place where the garment ends and the person begins —the line the magazine never drew.She drew it herself.

She drew it herself

This is the bravest thing in the piece.Not the suit. Not the direct gaze. The line —the one that shows you exactlywhere the image ends and the woman begins.

The room behind her is teal and darkand full of the shapes of a lifethe magazine never photographed.She has always lived here.She has always been this layered.They only got the surface.

This is the second piece.The mask is gone.The direct gaze is the whole statement —I see you seeing me.

I drew the line.
The image ends here.
The woman continues.