no one’s really like you
and no one really likes you

at certain moments you have
a certain likeness to
        likeability

but that likeness
is not itself
            likeability

even those
who like your likeness
agree in essence
you lack    
        likeability

even I don’t like you
and I like
        everybody 

Scott C. Wells is a professor of medieval history at California State University, Los Angeles.    His academic writings have been published by Brill, Ashgate, Palgrave, and Cambridge University Press.  His chapbook, Persons and Places, is available at Skylight Books in L.A.