How do you hide from the mirror so well?

Your tears are so faint I almost missed them;

I almost missed you!

That fluorescent smile, so wide and so "true".

As though your mouth were not curled
around rough cinder chips…

Hide the cuts on your lips
so masterfully, too!

A smile and a laugh.. you dance like a leaf
blown by hot fume and ash…

Your tattered edge hidden from view.

No, I am not like you.

I dance more like pebbles rolled by the tide..

all scattered, and cracked…

My smile is chipped and askew...

And my laugh is absurd!

Halting and gruff..
not lovely like you.

Not chorus triumphant with heaven's imbue.

You're harp strings and viols in rhapsody blue!

And would you believe, I once had the mind

to smite myself coldly and leave me behind

to emulate all that is you?

To laugh and to sing - to dance like a flame -

to speak the way only you do!

Yes, I wanted so much to persue!

But, your lips drip with nightshade in honey-sweet dew,

so viciously rich!

My ache is entwined in their hue.

No, I could not be quite like you!

© Nathan A. Brock