Negative (Poetry)

Her image unfamiliar now and strange
as those vague dream companions who
merge their features — an uneasy mix
of friend and someone else unrecognised.

Skin dark, hair bleached out flashbulb harsh,
all shadows in reverse and searchlight sharp,
her alter ego bared — identity unmasked
as though some candid x-ray caught off-guard

her true nature’s underlying freakishness,
white/black and artful, weird enough to trick
and unsettle with so alien a face,
yet still capture her in stark-toned opposites.