I held the mirror like my mother once showed me
Gingerly
Openly
And thoughtful

It reflected back where I could never stand
On the ceiling
Where I could never wander
Upside-down

There the dazzling glass showed my chin from the bottom
I could see up my nose
See through my bottom lids, as lucent green
And from there I could creep like a spider amidst the stars

I sauntered around the ceiling fan
Laid upon the rough surface
Felt the upper limits
Where I could never reach

I was a child
And my imagination said I could walk where I wanted to walk
Hold onto the fan and swing with it
And skip upside-down on the ceiling

My hair would slowly fall upward
For I was not right side up
And it felt like it was floating off my head
Though it only hung down

The mirror would become my sight
My ears
My touch
Me

I no longer strolled upright
For down was up
And up was down
And I lived inside the echoed world

Until my mother reminded me that I was on the floor
Running my fingers through the carpet
Away on my mind’s eye cloud
Desiring for the impossible