To Miss the Mark

“There’s a quality of legend about freaks. . . . Freaks were born with their trauma.” ~Arbus

Yes and no, not all of it,
Not hardly, mostly
Just potential for more and
More and more of it.

The photographer herself
Might bring some of it,
Even unaware of it.

Our trauma is your trauma
Made manifest, permanent.
That’s why you turn toward us
And away from us.

Every freak’s a Cassandra,
Memento apocalypse.
Death is a skull; we’re its lips.