It nods
behind me
as I speak
at the meeting.
All night
while I sleep
it stares
into the dark.
The bald spot
is bored.
Tired of waiting
in the office,
sick of following me
into sex.
It traces
and retraces
itself,
dreaming
the shape
of worlds
beyond its world.
Far away
it hears the laughter
of my colleagues,
the swift sure
sound of my voice.
The bald spot
says nothing.
It peers
out from hair
like the face
of a doomed man
going blanker
and blanker,
walking backwards
into my life.
-Wesley McNair