REFLECTING ON LIFE

Sometimes we need to stop and reflect on our lives, but not too often. Why opt for depression when elevation is much more uplifting!

If when you look in the mirror
And see an old white-bearded man
With tiny crows tracking the corners
Of two squinting eyes,

If the top of your head shines
In the light of the bathroom
Like Old Uncle Paul�s did
In your childhood,
How you would mask your face
With a sweat shirted arm
so the glare wouldn't blind you
And your uncle would smile
And say, Just you wait, kid,

If your tight neck�s gone missing
And when you pat your throat
Like Grandma would do
(Which you tried to avoid)
You think Colonel's Chicken
or some dumb turkey's gobble,

If you try hard not to look
At your chest that is sunken,
Empty of muscular treasures
Once flexed at the beach
Or the beach-ball belly
Stretching your shirt
Like a man big with child,

If when the humor of it all
Breaks out in a smile
Of less-than-white teeth,
And those hands,
Oh, those hands!
so strong
In your youth now crawling
With vein worms, liver spots,
And sometimes too often
You pocket their tremblings,

If the mirror can�t lie
When it says what it sees,
Why do you stand there
Locked eye to eye
As if magic will transform you
into what you once were?

And why not be grateful
For the years that you traveled
From then to this now
And take comfort in dreams
Where you�ll never find mirrors,
Where you know without looking
You�re that handsome young man
you always wanted to be.

#
(C) 2008 Salvatore Buttaci

Reviews

[Gandré]

You crafted your poem in a slight sentimentality masterfully you did, telling us, how years went fast and one is still not battered; still seeing the facts with ease: now this is honest retrospective. I liked the metaphor of mirrors and how this poem made me feel after reading it. I somehow became involved with your view back, without wanting. Wonderful.