Looking Glass

 Looking Glass

Deep within the looking glass,
Colorful emotions contort and flicker.
Ashes of blue, conflicts of green, passions of red,
Refract and reemerge as a shimmering display.

Upon its surface they appear
Desires and emotions reflected,
Presented on a different face.
The feelings seen, now the feelings felt,
Worn as a pretentious skin.

The looking glass tries not to look,
For fear of being overwhelmed.
For to see inside another’s soul is to stare into the sun.

The fervor and feelings of others
Reflect inside the mirror.
The mirror can’t help but be remade,
Becoming an image,
Rebuilt as a façade,
Becoming another’s echo.

No longer can it be itself,
It does not remember how
To be itself apart from others.

Associating with another’s blemishes,
Or showcasing lovely features,
Burdens borne by others now become the mirror’s.

The tears resound in the mirror’s heart,
The sorrow grips the deepest part,
Joy likewise is bundled up and cast inside.

Held within that tiny heart,
Lies a vast abundant ocean.
Deeper than one can imagine,
It contains every emotion.

Poor fragile mirror.
Innocent looking glass.
Never asked to feel the same as others
Or to become their copied faces,
Bearing such twinly traces.

The looking glass cannot be happy when looking at saddened faces,
And sorrow seems out of place when surrounded by joyous faces.

The struggle of matching intensity,
Keeping passion in line with another’s,
Proportioning emotional residue,
Keeping perfect symmetry,
Gathering and harboring feelings,
Expressing them so flawlessly,
Belongs to the wearied mirror.

To lag in expression is annoyance,
To surpass such feelings is taxing, draining, possibly lethal.
Such is the imposed burden and presumed responsibility
Of the looking glass.
              
 **  ** ** **  **
             
Have you ever been a looking glass?
Reflecting others until you wonder what you really feel?
Trying to remember who you really are?
Have you ever reflected an image not your own?
Swept away by another’s heart,
Left wondering where you end and another begins,
Asked to play along and pretend to be someone else instead?

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