Biometrics

You can change your name,
but your shadow stays the same.
Those who know you
can sense you in a room

your breath, a rhythm known,
your scent, a secret plume.
You may alter skin, its tone,
Never the underlying bone.

The seas in your eyes are tracked,
Your freckles too are mapped.
They’ve measured the flow
and ebb of every vein;

every crypt, every catacomb you contain.
Your heart is on record;
its pulses counted and kept;
they’ve touched the hidden places

where guilt in secret slept.
Even your silence now is tapped.
You can change your name…
but still, you are trapped.

Author's Note

A reality.

Reviews

[Thomas W Case]

The imagery here is relentless and precise—like every line is scanning the soul. I love how the poem makes the inescapable feel both intimate and ominous; it lingers long after the last word.