Cartography of Instability

She arrives like weather that forgets it is weather

all voltage, all sudden brightness

like the room loses its footing before I do

Her stories do not stay still

they shift when I look directly at them

I stop asking for certainty

and start collecting fragments

She is all restless movement

itching at her own skin, shifting in her seat

like her body cannot decide where to land

she asks me questions like she is building a map

but leaves herself half drawn

edges missing, details withheld

I begin to adjust around her

my sentences getting smaller, more careful

as if I can keep things steady through precision

I watch myself trying to hold the shape of her

while she keeps changing it

There are moments she feels close enough to name

and then she is gone again inside herself

I cannot tell where honesty ends

and performance begins

I start to understand

this is not a line I can trace cleanly

Only repetition

only return without resolution

only the feeling of almost knowing

And I keep finding myself here

at the edge of something that will not become stable

no matter how long I look at it

The False Mirror (1928) by René Magritte