LINDSAY POPE Self-portrait after Geoff Cochrane I i Myself in the mirror. A leathery, stubborn man. You can hear the genetic stubble. ii My adult life has been blind to the lanes of blood. Her blood, his blood. II i Myself at the blackboard. I look like a cardigan from St. Vincent de Paul’s. The smell of chalk dust and stale theorems. ii Five days, numb days. III i Myself in Eden. A bellbird quavers her song of green splashing ice. My straw head, as deaf as a spade. ii My ornery life has been a charm of apples. Glass apples, windfall apples. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Lindsay Pope paints roofs to get closer to the sky. He writes poems to get closer to the truth. Return to 2009 contents >