NOBODY HOME. . .

I'm afraid I
am not
myself today

I'm
someone else
entirely

a stranger
unknown
to me

My reflection
steps out of
the mirror

"Well, there you are..."
it grins
"...in you go!"

The mirror
closes
behind me

a world
of glass
freckled with time

my shadow
abandons
me

now that it has become
a person
in its own right

struts about
on the sunny side of the street
pretends not to know me when we meet

even my imaginary friend
refuses to talk me
acts as if I don't exist

*

My father and my brother both died recently and for two years I wandered in a limbo of grief...trying to keep going and pretend I was still me...this is what that feeling felt like.