MIRROR

Standing tall, and taller now than me,

now taller – growing still – my silence

fogs this silver slice of light, and blunts

the pain of the clear divide to fill

the deep inches between my two selves.

 

Into the glass, out from it.

How can this same mirror

pour my gaze out and trap it

in the quick closing walls of my soul

too near to see? Reflect!

Each step back sows new hollows

beneath my heels, new holes

in the dusty half-light of my heart.

Until the sudden darkening

of an unguarded eyelid finds me back,

this side of me. Reflect?

I have been beyond the mirror!

Dulled the prickling emptiness

of questions that answers killed!

I have surprised ideas

into thoughts into words

into truths to have them

pursue me back in my own image. 

Reckoning, reflecting, reliving the ignored,

until each naked encore of perfection hurts.