Reflections

Reflections

Within this hall of mirrors
This carnival of souls
We walk a maze familiar
We're unable to control
Secure in our gilded frames
Grayed out at the back
On reflection for protection
The windows tinted black
With bubbled glass and pitted marks
Reflecting what looks in
Obscuring the viewers eye
Refractions masking sin
Imagined imperfections
We hide behind the glaze
To eyes of the beholders
The ones who stop to gaze
The ones who stop to stare on through
To see what glass might hide
To process the transparent hue
That usually resides
In sand blasted, forged over time
Before we learnt to fare
To hold fast to what others think
Before we learnt to care
But when somebody circles round
The angled frame, obtuse
Notes the liquid slipping down
And lead paint flaking loose
Thinking that they're seeing through
And though maybe they are
Really they're not seeing you,
The minute cracks and scars
We see ourselves as composite
A symbiotic view
We mirror images, transmit
Reflecting through and through
Refracted through a prism gleamed
A crystal rose, thorns jagged, tough
Imperfect as we think we seem
We choose the flaws we love
We like how we're reflected
Within another's eyes
To see how we're projected
A different shape or size
Regardless of how broken
Or how many times repaired
When all is done and spoken
In the end it's that we cared
We care for those who cast us
Less tragic than we feel
In turn we let them past us
Beyond where life anneals
Secured in our gilded frames
With lead paint at our backs
Within this hall of mirrors, may
… you find the things you lack