As if shame were, in fact, a shine
in the chameleon’s skin, I took to looking
through my camera lens, at stacks of stockings
like prohibitions of modesty in a reptile eye.
Where I see stars, black coats see skin.
Meish saw my photographs in double exposed
vision, with Tel Aviv’s daylight porn dubbed
into Hebrew. My face still reddens
for male frailty. Why when rabbis teach
to light the way is a girl’s skin unseemly.
Place a chameleon upon the surface of a lie,
watch its color clamor out.
Gillian Reingold is a writer and artist based in Israel-Palestine. She facilitates an embodied awareness practice that encourages a devotion to living a creative, balanced life, Gaia SoundBody (SM).