Mirror

Looking in the mirror’s face,

Breath blows icy, chest heavy, pulses race,

Yesterday’s idealist commonplace.

Planets who drift in outer space.

Thorny rose of youth, painstaking fades

Truths move,

Seem blurred,

in graying shades.

Morning cartoons with cereal bowls,

Pajamas with the scraped knee holes.

Those shows start out in black and white,

Adding colors,

pleases sight.

Gold rules exist in kiddy world,

The hero always gets the girl.

The lyric story of my youth,

Circus fairground kissing booth.

Rights were right, wrongs were wrong,

I sailed on certain stars so long.

The nightingale sings of just one song.

While Ulysses traveled a thousand seas

Paths home,

not the least of these.

Mockingbird songs pacify and please.

Mirror mirror whither thou?

Where am I delivered now?

When up is down,

Feet on the ground,

Mirages vanish,

without a sound.

For our fading selves we fend,

Knees swearing fealty bend,

Grasping climbing falling ascend,

Gravity used to be my friend.

Mirror show me a better face,

That I might go and find my place.