ASKEW
If you look in the mirror do you see a cut and paste version
of yourself, one you took yesterday. Sliced from the fatty end
and ready to be discarded? Or do you look twice at your eyes,
claim sight and no tomfoolery in evidence can see the truth
behind the spell you conjure. I am hoping for the latter.
In my dreams I have flung the mask beyond the rising tide,
grabbed my walkie talkie, clicked the button Roger, everything
A OK. I see one other sitting calmly by the shore and ask
Do you need something? They ask me to turn a valve beneath
the large stone in front of them. I ask for clarification and
not wishing to seem lofty, I kneel beside them on the sand.
I feel their thoughts, like cacti under skin. The mirror cracks.
Robert Harper
Poem 25: #NaPoWriMo 2022
(Wordle, Quordle & Octordle results from 25th April)