a portrait dodged on my mind
spotted and retouched
silhouetted in the grainy penumbra

a soft-focus smile with a motion blur
at the edges of the mouth
where the fixer could not hold

candid grey card hand pushing the negative
framed by the infrared cautions
my perspective agitated in my stomach

a stop bath of underdeveloped words
like a graveyard for my depth of field

those muted views from your apartment door
solarized in the albumen light of our distance

a carte-de-visite from your camera obscura
rapping on my ribcage like my heart is
enlarging and must be cropped