How can you see? she asked me
when I told her I couldn't draw.
Not a day since then went by
without a line. I looked at things,
their shapes and shadows, and
I put them on the page. I tried
to see her, but I couldn't draw
her likeness. And when she looked
at me, I knew that I was being seen
more clearly, as if bathed in better
light. But she didn't let me see
her drawings. And so my image of
myself was safe, as was of course
the image that she had of me.