Troubled Water

in this self-portrayal
my words and thoughts
secondhand description
of water’s surface
a simulacrum composed
of observations, generics,
and other representations,
for I see incompletely
a thing ever changing
with an apparatus tainted
by expectation tromp l’oeil,
I render my fear, doubt, hope,
shadows, highlights, halftones
to compose picture of
troubled water surging in blasts
of foam on dark volcanic rock
to tell a story you can agree with
and make my self-doubt
into your view of me