Simulacrum

Simulacrum 

Once he longed for the [   ] he became more

Opaque as though light in its [   ] points could

Not penetrate his substance--what substance there

Was since the word had ceased to have any meaning

For him. He tried to convince himself he wasn't

Disappearing: "I'm as much as there ever was."

He partitioned his being into here and there

--as if he were grocery shopping at a store

With which he was forever unfamiliar, the aisles

Turning this way and that way until he couldn't

Find canned peaches, bottled apple juice, clams,

Chips--Where had he gone? What would others say

Now that even he had lost his voice with its old

Timbre? Its old tempo? Once he longed

For the [   ] he began.