Smile, you're on camera!

Don’t look now,
but you’re being watched.

I can’t believe I did that.
     What was I thinking!?

Somewhere up there
future versions of you
with newfangled devices
are deliberating,

That’s what I should have said!

older and older,
determining if this is where things went wrong.

If only I had started sooner!

Thank god I’m better now.
I finally have it figured out,
systems perfected,
surely in their final iteration.

Why was my hair like that!?

Shit!

Looking down now,
reading out the lines
right there in black and white
that you failed to memorize.

How embarrassing! How utterly shameful
that you didn’t see this coming.
They have to clean up your mess.

Reserved to tuck this part away,
a prototype not ready for public consumption,
and once it’s somewhere dark
you already believe

That wasn’t me.

While somewhere else,
down, down, down,
like fingernails cut off and thrown out,
hair collected by the drain,
living on without you—

old pieces and early versions of you
reach up for your big perfect sleeve,
Remember? Remember? they tug
crying out in unison
You couldn’t have known!