is it easy?
that easy?
to stare into The Mirror
and truly understand what is seen?

to blindly stare
to accept without question
without thought
without curiosity
into The Mirror
and See?

is what ones sees
justifiable?
honest?
True?

no I say!
it is not that simple
not that convenient
too easy

but The Mirror is clever
and wants one to accept
that is already in front of him
what is incorrectly interpreted
much too often interpreted
as himself

it is paramount to see beyond
to not be drawn into the falsity
that is what is staring back

I have looked into The Mirror
and I too have accepted a distorted reflection
yet I, unlike many, now See

when I first looked into The Mirror
I was young
naïve
and, favorite of The Mirror, vulnerable

for I looked
I saw
tan
short
skinny
but in the back of the reflection
parents
white
tall
large

but I wasn’t such
wasn’t
white, tall, large
bur rather
tan, short, and skinny

but The Mirror had been clever
and never spoke
about what these differences meant
about what craters
underlay the cracks

and The Mirror
being so clever
did allow for some knowledge
in order to appease
a growing curiosity


The Mirror
my reflection
told me that
I was from a land across the sea

It was no secret
For
even in my younger, more vulnerable youth
I knew the fact

yet I knew not of the degree
of the perverted image
that stared back
that lied
in spite of knowledge
that didn’t elucidate
which subsequently left me in the dark

but how was I to know?
how was I to understand?
at that point
at the age of vulnerability
of how to see beyond my own reflection


alas
only time could help
to compensate for shortcomings

for as I got older
more mature
more aware of the world around me
the image in the mirror
became foggy
perverted
distorted
and, it seemed,
more so with every passing year
until I finally said Enough!

I looked into The Mirror
and I saw
an unfamiliar face
distorted by the intrinsic nature of
a genetic crater
between my parents and myself




so
in order to bridge the crater
I needed to know who I was
before I could See
the individual who was staring back

I delved into a place
at once alien and familiar
I delved
into my Past

what I found was
a life
that I personally never knew
but that I felt was inherently related to my own

what I found were
images
images of verdant flora
contrasting with hues of deepest blue in surrounding streams

what I found were
images
images of poverty
of a scarred nation

what I found were
images
images of perseverance
of a skinny yet determined man
trudging to the local market
in order to provide for his starving family

these images
brought forth a feeling of
unjustifiable nostalgia
into a life
that never before
experienced true memory

memory brought Clarity
to an image
distorted by genetics
distorted by ignorance

but, after diving into a murky marsh of memory,
I was grounded in a firm foundation of fact
that brought a sense of identity
that allowed me to See
into The Mirror