Portrait

Myself from behind, from behind, seated,
a nude, near nude, the sepia of dusk,
dusk, surrounding the bed like a cloud.
A cloud around the vulnerable nape
(impossible to tell how old the face).
The hidden face; the naked back
(impossible to say this woman has had a child).

I peeled away pale camouflage.
I have been through a bone-twisting battle.
This is the silence that straightens me, that comes after.