The Mirror
At first I thought,
My mother had moved the mirror,
That had been lying covered under a sheet
In our basement,
And brought it into our dining room
For Thanksgiving dinner.
Perhaps, (I reasoned),
She did this to make the room look expansive.
So it would appear large enough to accommodate
All the uncles and aunts and cousins,
And all the cousins of aunts and uncles,
And all the grandparents and great-grandparents
Who sat so close together that some of us
(Myself included),
Began to sweat.
At first I thought,
That when I looked at him,
I was looking simply at myself.
The resemblance was so striking that when I raised my arm to wipe my brow
I almost shuddered upon seeing my “reflection” remain completely still.
When my grandmother,
Following my gaze,
Asked cheerily,
“I guess you’ve never met your dad's brother, have you?”
I bit my tongue,
So that I would not shout,
“I must have been raised by him.”
Regrettably
Regret is an act of assessment:
Probe the depth of the sin,
Measure it,
Weigh it against all other transgressions,
To conclude you are undeserving
Of even your own sympathy.
Person Unknown
From fighting hands he took something
Into his own
And ran a while
And spoke little
Who knew who might recognize him
As a thief?
After some months spent
Successfully anonymous
He disciplined himself
To run faster
To speak less
Redoubled his efforts
To remain a perfect stranger
Only to realize
He had not profited from the theft
Self-Deception
Shrugged as you ate
My still-whole, still-beating heart.
I'll find another.
Closed my eyes and woke to see
I was lying on a boat
Docked on dry desert soil,
Naked and alone,
And could barely stand to walk
Towards the only light:
A sparkling mirror suspended by a string
That must have reached up
All the way to the starless sky.
And in it I saw myself,
Saw that I was not myself,
And where I stood
There was instead
A changeling.
The Devil I Knew
In a moment of weakness
I chose the devil I knew
And while falling to pieces
I lost myself in a bar
And with the utmost of ease
I stopped my own heart
When I pulled out the keys
And got into that car
Storm
The chalk outline smudged
By the torrents of rain
As the killer is judged
To be clinically insane
And the family cries
Seeing justice denied
As the media tries
To interview them outside
When the killer walks by
He looks right at the mother
And with a wink of his eye
He summons the thunder
Left Behind
From beyond the grave,
I tried to save
My family’s sanity.
Thought I’d haunt their home
And make it known
I was truly, finally free.
But when I went in
I heard the din
Of laughter loud and lively.
Fable
Mincing your words
So they'd be easier to swallow
That story you told
That twisting of the tongue
Strained every muscle in your face