Mirrors

Mirrors

Across this continent

Through all the rooms

I have traveled

Mirrors have followed me

As I change my hair

While eyelids drooped

Scars formed to hide

Small broken bones

The cheeks arose and feel

As weight gain and loss

Stretched and sagged

Will all these Mirrors

Gather to wish me good-bye

Or will they hold my image

Until they, too, are broken

Failing to reflect their own

Passage into pieces

This day begins in reflection

Of all the mirrors that saw

What no one was to see

Just me alone staring at it

These old friends looking

At the progression of days

With each other in light

From the days of no beard

To reddened teenage skin

Then the wrinkles of age

Breaking each other down

Some of these mirrors

I shared with a wife

And little children 

Discovering the silvered glass

Some lovers and friends

Saw themselves beside me

These eyes become smokey

As I wipe the steam away

Only to discover the moisture

Was in my eyes

Hiding what I didn't see

The tears of the forgotten 

I hurt or the hurt I felt

So sees the mirror

An old friend looking at me

Through each tired beginning

That shakes off the night

Barry G. Wick