The Mirror Darkly

Though I talk through you, over and around you

Pretending you do not exist

Still, still, ineffable, somewhere inside me

I feel you wrangle and twist

Reason, rebellion and servile surrender

Grapple where years take their toll

When did it begin; oh, I cannot remember

Subtle, the swift seasons roll

Bowing beneath Time’s firm, resolute scepter

Learning the art of farewell

I brave the face-to-face proof of my weakness

Honest, inexorable

Silent and sear; eons soldered behind me

Rise like a ghost-town bathed in mist

Staid, stark silhouettes of burned-out illusion

Grapple and wrangle and twist

Somewhere inside me I refuse to name you

Lest I succumb to despair

Grace gilds the silk of a soft, waking morning

Life is a leaf on its air

© Janet Martin

 When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love. 1 Cor. 13: 11-13