To the exploding smiles of a thousand lenses,
you respond with a well-timed gleam of your own.
Light sinks into your focal corners
as if they house the Fountain of Youth.

The brick wall you wear for your reverse striptease
excites the eye. Developing photos uncloak a dark light
cocooned in a shell that anyone would try to crack.
You avert your eyes while you change masks, for modesty.

Your aperture admits a different sort of light,
so you see all the night photography taken here before.
The same demon tickling the crooked nose of St. Thomas Aquinas
performs mirror tricks and street magic for you.

But, while exploring in the dark, I have glimpsed you
just feet away in the void the demon’s fingers cover.
Your mason wears psychologist’s spectacles one day,
and devil’s wings the next.