Mirrors

Mirrors

Such funny things
complicit in my destruction.

Without a handy mirror
I forget what is
misshapen
lined
spotted
aging
sagging

I become
oblivious
to me
and self-loathing.

I forget me
and really hear you.

When I see me too closely
or too often
or too unexpectedly
I can’t hear you

just me
and my loathing.

So.
What to do?

Eschew mirrors?
or somehow learn
to look in them
with
unmirrored eyes?

And see, unseeing.

Seeing me,
seeing you

instead of
Seeing me,
seeing me.

Life is easier
I am easeir
when I see the world from
inside my head
instead of
thru my mirror,

If the light bounces once on my retina
instead of
first on the mirror
and then on the film
of me.