Pessoa as Banknote
Before I came to love her she gave me the banknote that bears your portrait.
In exchange I promised to owe her a poem in our future.
What is love if not The Two withdrawn from circulation?
If not an impossible economy, like renewable virginity?
I didn't picture myself as you whose face, slipping between hands,
bought slyly nuanced gestures and furtive kisses with defunct currency.
- John Mateer
in Southern Barbarians, The Zero Press
