Self-Portrait of the Poet, Looking at a Photo of Herself
By Sara Letourneau
Photo taken at Logan Airport in Boston, Massachusetts, September 2021
Look at my eyes
and how they sparkle like tumbled aventurine
behind my glasses. Everyone says my eyes
are the first thing they notice about me.
So did my boyfriend when we finally sat down
to talk about love. He still swears my irises
are the color of polished nickel.
I disagree, but I won’t deny that,
when in just the right light
and at just the right angle, they glow—
soft and steady, like the headlamps
we’ll both wear at the Lava Tunnel cave tour
in a few days. But right here, right now,
I’m at the airport, waiting with him
for our check-in desk to open,
glasses on and sweetly tilted
as I look at his camera,
dark brown hair half-up,
half falling out of the matching elastic;
one hand tugging down my magenta COVID mask
so I can smile for the photo (and for him),
the other curled around the small of my back
to reveal a peek of the opal promise ring
he gave me five months ago.
No pimples or chin hairs are visible,
the freckles on my cheeks too small to see
from this short distance,
but it’s clear from the heart-blush on my cheeks
and the vastness of my grin that I’m thinking
only about the upcoming trip
and not my perceived imperfections.
Behind me, the waiting area at Terminal E
is dim, the announcement screens and white numbers
at each closed desk blurred, almost impossible
to read, as the girl in the mint green shirt—
the girl who is me—
reflects all of the room’s light
like the snow I’ll see atop Snaefellsjökull in one week.
Or perhaps I’m not reflecting light
but emitting my own,
a beacon of my world and his,
using lenses made of intuition that flash a message—
Look at me, I am beautiful—
that I’m only now beginning to believe.
Sara Letourneau is the author of Wild Gardens. She is a poet, freelance book editor, writing coach, and writing workshop instructor who lives in suburban Massachusetts. Her poetry has received first place in the Blue Institute’s 2020 Words on Water Contest and appeared in Mass Poetry’s Poem of the Moment and The Hard Work of Hope, Constellations, Soul-Lit, Amethyst Review, The Avocet, The Aurorean, Golden Walkman Ma
