Inside out
Once when expecting a son,
I met a woman who was also pregnant
and I thought goodness, her bump is huge,
I won’t be spherical like her for ages
then someone took our photo and I realised
I was Jupiter to her Pluto.
Now that baby has a beard and a job,
but I am still astonished by the difference
between my inside and my outside.
The treacherous mirror shows me lines and chins and
a bottom shape that comes with age,
people (though never more than once) give me seats
and call me dear, to which I say ‘hell no’
