Mirror Mirror

Photo by Meital Anlen on Unsplash

Life, global pandemics, middle age — it does things to the body. Things we are “supposed” to feel a certain way about. But — what if we didn’t?

And so you woke up this morning feeling strong

(except for that one little space

right above your right hip bone

and your ankle when you bend it just that way)

looked in the mirror with full open eyes,

you saw it all.

From the tips of your graying hair

through the soft folded whiteness of your belly

to the unpolished tips of your toes.

You raised your middle finger to the voices of unkindness from outside,

and breathed,

(puffing out your belly,

a shelf for the uneven shapes of your breasts)

and you launched your grenade to the middle of the world-at-large,

you loved it all.