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The view from the mirror

  (c) Shreefal Mehta.    6 Feb 2021

To hear it read aloud click here: https://youtu.be/0nh959EZAb0


Twist my nose, make a squinty smile
Furrowed brows, fake a silent shout, 
In play shock, eyes widened a while. 
Lips in, brows up, tongue out.

The bathroom door closed, alone I play the fool
The mirror plays along, now laughing now cool
Staring at those eyes looking back at me - come nearer
Something shifts - I see, now, not me, stranger from the mirror. 

Who’s this strange face, should I feel terror? 
Am I in the mirror or in between?  I wonder.
The face with no name, where did I step out?
Gestalt into the other view- where am I? I doubt.

Saying a word over and over andover andover andover
Under pure sound a world of meanings collapses over!
And with that shift, the world has no name
The mirror extends all around - has no frame.

Disembodied, disengaged
Unlocked from inputs, switched around in the mirror
Meanings disconnected.
Same but different, the view from the mirror.

Seeing with unmoving gaze
Mind silent locked it stays
All forms gone in this haze
Yet I remain, a traveller in the maze

I saw tears of silent rage at a bully, many years ago as a child
At 20 this unchanging I, dove from red cliff into blue waters wild
Where is this ageless I sitting, viewing life moving past on a screen ?
Staring, without seeing, a red flower bloom as in a dream ?

In this switch I lose meaning and find myself in wonder
Have you seen the view from the mirror? 
The mirror and I we are one and yet no one.




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