Prose Poem

I’ve broken up with my reflection. I don’t stare in the mirror at a pimple faced five foot teenage girl with wavy hair but not the kind of wavy everyone likes and I don’t wonder why God gave me a nose too big for my face or eyes that sometimes look too small and uneven depending on the light and the mood I’m in. I don’t look at the teeth that took 4 years of braces and 2 years of back and forth retainer wear to make, a smile that doesn’t match my face because the years where I was supposed to smile were spent hiding my train tracks from the world waiting for better days where I would have the straight teeth they promised me when they stuck metal wire in my mouth and glue on my teeth.

I don’t look at the prominent chin that I grew into but used to get teased about in 7th grade when Junior would call me names that he later said weren’t meant to hurt me yet I would end up crying in the grey walls of the bathroom stall while the masses played outside during recess. I don’t look in the mirror anymore, not since I learned that the mirror is not really what your reflection is, but a machine that points out more often than not where you went wrong than where you went right, and I’ve learned the people around you are better mirrors than the one in my sea foam green bathroom could ever be.

People will tell you little things here and there like gosh your hair looks pretty today is that a new shade you’re wearing on your lips? I like it. you’re so cute when you laugh seriously your smile is contagious. I’ve seen the best parts about me not glancing at my reflection when I step out of the shower and look dead ahead into the glass circle hanging above the sink but when I’m sitting on a bench in Central Park and he says to me with a voice as clear as the sky above our heads : ’You’re brighter than the sun to me baby.”