Mirror, Mirror

Plaster walls,
full of cracks
breaking in.
Press my back
against the door. . .
Falling through the floor.
Mirror, mirror that I see,
Mirror, dear, do you love me?

Hunger bites,
claws my skin.
Not one bite
will I let in.
Peer inside my mind
fear is all you'll find.
Mirror, mirror, see how strong?
The mirror is never wrong.

Promises
I make them
and fail.
The beast is
festering within,
deep underneath my skin.
"Freedom, freedom," cries my soul
Over the mirror's death toll.

Legs fall prey
to overwork.
My eyes twitch
all berserk.
My stomach has shrunk in
How much further till I win?
I don't think it ever ends.
The mirror is not my friend.

Jump through
the hoops
of life.
Emotions loop
round and round--
my feet aren't on the ground.
Mirror, you are torturing me;
no one sees the things I see.

Please, please,
make it stop.
Please, please.
Stomach drops,
arms like sticks,
bones that prick. . .
"Mirror," I say, "let me go."
But the mirror tells me no.

I'm trapped,
stuck in the swirl.
Please save me.
Used to be a normal girl.
I'm not like her at all.
I stutter, stumble, slip and fall.
Locking me in her glass chest,
Mirror says, "I know what's best."

I'm different now,
I'm a shell.
I've changed.
Who I was is gone, as well,
in her place is someone wild.
She is the mirror's child.
Mirror hits, me breaks me--
why doesn't anyone else see?

Emptiness,
all that I am.
Done for; done.
Crash. Shatter. Bam.
Pieces of the old me,
parts of who I used to be.
Mirror, mirror, now who am I?
Rotted, bruised, broken inside.

Thinness was
just a decoy.
Skinny. . .
Now I am the mirror's toy.
I thought that I was doing right,
but I've strayed far from the light
I pray no one falls like me
for the mirror's trickery.

Now I'm stuck.
I'm trapped
in her ice-cold chest.
I stood, enrapt,
the girl who I could maybe be
staring straight back at me.
Where's the girl with the clear head?
Mirror answers me, "She's dead."

Mirror promised good
things to me.
Good things.
only she could see.
I swear I'll flee
from the one who broke me.
Mirror can kill me with goodbye;
get me out before I die.

Nearly done,
almost there,
Funny, but . . .
Mirror doesn't care.
"You can never leave.
You'll never be free."
"Mirror, tell me when it ends."
"Never, my dear, little friend."

Drag me up
to the light
Get me out.
I'll try and fight.
God, save my soul.
Take me, make me whole.
Mirror keeps a tight grip,
but I feel her fingers slip.

Falling in
and out
of sleep.
They ask,
"Why'd you let yourself get caught?"
Don't ask why. Ask why not.