Mirror

Stand perky and smile.
I look pretty today, or so I say.
I did my hair nice, make up just right.
Make cute faces like the whole world
Is watching my sitcom.
I see, me, doing my best to be beautiful.

 

Satisfied, I turn. I face you, society.
In my head I keep a pretty picture of me today.
Then I see you, society, and you see me.
It’s not only a pose,  smile, a picture.
You see me.
But I don’t know what you see.
And the curiosity kills the cat.
Am I the same girl I think I am?
Am I still the girl in the photograph?
I know I am pretty, beautiful even.
But when I look at you, look at me,
I forget.
How do you see me?
The photograph slowly disappears,
Like the image of the same person after a new haircut.
And I lose myself.

 

There’s no third person of me,
Who can watch as I go about my day.
To see how I see myself.
I rely on you, society.
To give me the image of me.
Of who I think, you think, I should be.
Unreliable you, society,
I am lost until I find myself
In my reflection again.

 

2014