Diego Isaias Hernández Méndez, Convirtiéndose en characoteles / Sorcerers Changing into Their Animal Forms (detail), 2013, oil on canvas. Arte Maya Tz’utujil Collection.
In My Imagination
(though I am sixty now) I love
to finger you much as I did the
little girl who lived in the
house next door when I was ten
touching her was a matter of
fervent curiosity to find out
how she was different and to
speculate on what the differ-
ence meant_ _ but touching you
now (in my imagination) is
something else_ _it is an in-
visible act of pure affection
and my plea for reassurance I
want to be comforted by the
belief that you would want me
to love you if we were together.
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James Laughlin is the founder of the New Directions Publishing House. His Collected Poems was published in 1994. (updated 6/2010)
Laughlin’s collection The Secret Room was reviewed in AGNI 46 by Drew Swinger.