One year all year I kept the pond for mirror, And tasked water in place of one that broke And so had run out of looking luck. The pond re-made me foot to head,- and, nearer, 5 Showed my face as something like, no clearer. Flat stones I scalped across what shone for song Laughed at my distorted self the summer long. Then one day in the polished lead of water I saw what my broken mirror showed too often: fear 10 Of eyes in eyes, a black kept-back glance Desperate for breakage like a last chance To be itself something more than a moment's stare. When autumn came, and I dared again look down, A reluctant pond as rough as hands hid my face 15 For days, but not the sense of my disgrace. Leaves above my pallid blur mocked me with a crown. Winter's stintless nights full of wishes as a star Drew ice across my mirror in a frozen sheet Obscure and cold, and chilled a glance that 20 Knew me once, and I held back a shiver. When my breath came back to breathing more at ease- When pond had been blanched ice long enough- I thought how roots go down, fathomless and tough To stretch what stark water offers into trees. 25 Then I looked again, with midnight thoughts, At the rowans surrounding.- And then beyond all thought, Far into the night, and past night to coming dawn.- I looked into my mirror and hoped Spring again Would wake it as full of fears as it had been.
From the collection "Assembling the Earth"
Written by Gregg Glory [Gregg G. Brown]
More information available on gregglory.com.