He comes to me saying we used to be friends
I: “I used to be friends with everyone, I was famous,
“Young and pretty.”
A prestigious talent in my halcyon years
Immense with wonder, dazzling smiles drawn taut as baptismal thighs
Now I melt
But then
Crystalline like sculpted ice

He recollects like a child who has spilled his toys on the floor
Embarrassingly forgiving of who I am and whoever it is he remembers
“I don’t ask for much,” he benignly promises
But with nothing left, every request is for the world
and my world has gone

I am to him who I was to a buried decade
The star of popular faith
Messianic and soothingly charmed in my way, idyllic
Radiant with the saturating glow of adoration and childish self-loathing
Eternal in his limited estimation
Now I know
But then
I believed in my own myths