I became myself. I became myself.No, I always was myself. There’s no such person as myself.I wouldn’t have to turn my eye inward, I thought, if I could train my eyeon him—the one I loved. But I was wrong. My eye lovedeverything it fell upon. And then one day it fell upona mirror. And he was nowhere in the mirror. And she was everywhere.
Couplets
Maggie Millner
Feature Date
- December 28, 2022
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This poem originally appeared in The Nation magazine and is reprinted with permission.
Copyright © 2022 by Maggie Millner.
All rights reserved.
Reproduced by Poetry Daily with permission.
Maggie Millner is the author of Couplets (forthcoming from FSG in February 2023). Her poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, The Nation, BOMB, Kenyon Review, Poetry, and elsewhere. She is currently a senior editor at The Yale Review and a lecturer in writing at Yale.
May 2/9 2022
New York, New York
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