KNOWN CONSEQUENCES

For years and years he fretted; he undressed

before small or large mirrors,

before any pane of glass; he tried out carefully

first one and then another position in order to choose, to discover

the one most his, the one most natural, that he might become

his own finished statue-although he knew

that statues were most often prepared

for the dead, and even more often

for certain unknown,nonexistent gods.