sonnet-sized: poem in 14 lines, number one

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photos of the loch ness monster, revisited

go back and back to a single grainy image:
a man’s outline in the doorway
as he storms out. when you show him
he insists, that’s not me. or maybe
a friend says, i saw your old lover with his wife,
and you imagine her blurry, an uncertain figure
at his side. in my old life, i was
nothing more than a smudge on the lens.
everyone laughs when i try to show proof
i won’t know love again. but that one
april weekend, a camera captured me,
part of a pair at the coast. the sun behind.
both faces in shadow. features indistinguishable.
we cannot be sure.

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*poem title echoes this scientific american headline: photos of the loch ness monster, revisited. (i love poetry from headlines!)

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draft only — if i end up wanting this to be sonnet-like, i’ll play with rhyme, near-rhyme, slant rhyme, etc. upon revision. for this draft, i wanted a small container and found it in sticking to 14 lines.

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