The Adversary

If I could shift my flesh
into another's, I would become you,
fold my softnesses
into your shape and carry
your beauty about like a hermit crab.

I would usurp your life,
a changeling child,
old eyes betraying my eerie origins.
I would steep myself
in the love that has come to you.

I would feed myself
on the offerings meant for you,
a stronger chick hatched
from a cuckoo's egg, evicting
the chick of the host, your innocence.

Kitty Coles
 
If you have any comments on this poem, Kitty Coles  would be pleased to hear from you.