Claudia Reder: “Self-Portrait at Fifty”
SELF-PORTRAIT AT FIFTY
Across the open Dutch door
I lean towards my former self.
Her young fingers fold over
the half-door as if we are neighbors
greeting each other
over a borrowed cup of milk.
In the future we may pass each other
and wonder, Have we met?
Have we crossed paths before?
Or perhaps we’ll remain distant cousins
who otherwise
have nothing in common.
Claudia Reder has had poems recently appear in Feminist Studies and The Healing Muse. Her other publications include Uncertain Earth (Finishing Line Press) and My Father & Miro (Bright Hill Press). She teaches at California State University at Channel Islands.