Vain Alice’s Paradox
But once you’ve actually walked face forward through the looking glass
you’ve entered not a wonderland but an optical illusion,
where three-dimensional and two dimensional you
inhabit different sides of the same glass.
Of course only if virtual you turned around
could your real and virtual faces be eye-to-eye.
And in that world of reflection,
your left side becomes your right, and your right side becomes your left,
which would turn you into a pretzel if real and virtual you ever shook hands.
While preening yourself in that good looking glass
like the self-important Alice or Al you just know you truly are,
three-dimensional you must wait for two-dimensional you
to hold out a hand for shaking,
because before a vanity mirror it’s your image that always makes the first move,
then the real you must contort to follow it.
Bio: Richard Fein was a finalist in The 2004 Center for Book Arts Chapbook Competition. He will soon have a Chapbook published by Parallel Press, University of Wisconsin, Madison. He has been published in many web and print journals such as Southern Review, Morpo Review, Oregon East Southern Humanities Review, Morpo, Skyline, Touchstone, Windsor Review, Maverick, Parnassus Literary Review, Small Pond, Kansas Quarterly, Blue Unicorn, Exquisite Corpse, Terrain Aroostook Review and many others. He also has an interest in digital photography and has published many of his photos. Samples of his photography can be found on http://www.pbase.com/bardofbyte photo album