Lookalike
For a moment I’m fooled. It’s so nearly you:
box pleat skirt, lilac shoes, pink blouse pressed,
hair fanned in a halo – but the face isn’t yours.
You’re hidden inside a waxwork of you,
looking through me, sapphire eyes
have lost their light, become wolfish.
You’re in there somewhere: I can hear you
reciting your lines, you know what to say
but not when to say it,
nodding when the answer’s no.
Juliet Humphreys is a teacher and poet who lives in Uxbridge.