An Unfolding

by Bruce MacDonald

A stranger taking shape.
The unfamiliar finding form.
A waiting losing time.
Maybe a mouth even moving.
Saying now on new facial terrain.
The usual body sum becoming some body.
Somebody in front of you.
In the middle of all the same.
They look like someone else.
They look like someone new.
Friend or foe, threat or welcome.
It holds no import, a moot point.
Mute. The mirror of the world
can’t make a sound either way.
You move before it.
In no other shape.
A stranger taking place.


Bruce MacDonald is a Mental Health Worker by trade. His poetry has appeared in/on  lichen, sleepingfish, elimae, Another Toronto Quarterly. The poem is from an unpublished work of his called, There is Something You Should Know. He works in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and tries to keep the distinction between the real and not-so real alive.