The Shell Is Small and Internal, or Absent

You knew the moment you saw her
For the first time, she wasn’t there.

If you’d gotten to know her well
Through the years, you might have been fooled.

To hear people talk about her
Who know her, they seem sure she’s there.

But you saw it in that hallway,
Floating in late afternoon sun,

A small memory, old enough
To sink into fossil itself,

A being of certain bearing
Who, interacting with no one,

Had no one to be person for,
And was a kind of floating void.

Much later, you read it confirmed
By her own words, she wasn’t there.