the mirror poems
	
	Prologue:
	    If she could only break the glass--
	    the silver is already peeled back like first skin
	    leaving a thin
	    transparent thing that floats across the ground
	    in front of her: this white shadow.
	
	1. what a mirror thinks
	    a mirror thinks it has no self
	    so it wants to be everything it sees
	
	    it also thinks everything is flat
	
	    put a bunch together
	    & they think they see
	    the back side of the moon
	
	2. the mirror as a judge of character
	    keening my appetite
	    on the taste of an image of myself
	    sharpening myself
	    on bones;
	    suddenly
	    i lean over its eye
	    & see the way i see myself
	
	    i ask it
	    am i fairest in all the land
	
	    it opens like a backwards lake
	    & throws out of its center
	    a woman
	    combing her hair
	    with the fingers of the dead
	
	3. the mirror & suicide
	    someday
	    stand before a mirror & feel
	    you are drowned
	    let
	    your hair spread as sweet Ophelia's did
	    & you will rock
	    back & forth
	    gently
	    like a boat in kind water
	
	4. questions to ask a mirror
	    remember
	    whatever you ask a mirror
	    it will ask back
	
	    if you ask it
	    what will you give me
	    it will ask you
	    what will you give me
	
	    if you ask it what is love
	    it will turn into a telescope
	    & point at you
	
	    if you ask it what is hate
	    it will do the same thing
	
	    if you ask it what is truth
	    it will break in nine pieces
	
	    if you ask it what is beauty
	    it will cast no reflection
	
	    if you ask it to show you the world
	    it will show you the eye of your mother
	
	5. conversing with the mirror
	    never tell a mirror you are black
	    it will see you as a rainbow
	    never tell a mirror you are white
	    it will make you disappear
	    in fact a mirror doesn't care
	    what color you are
	
	    never tell a mirror
	    how old you are
	    under 20
	    you draw a blank
	    over 40    it stares
	
	    never cry in front of a mirror
	    it gets cruel
	
	    if a mirror doesn't trust you
	    it squints
	
	    if a mirror hates you
	    it speaks in a high-pitched voice
	
	    if a mirror calls you long distance
	    don't accept charges   hang up
	
	    never run from a mirror
	    it always leaves a friend outside
	
	    never have sex with a mirror
	    you will have in-grown children
	
	    don't take money from a mirror
	    there are strings
	
	    if you must converse with a mirror
	    say to it: you're pretty
	    & won't get broken
	
	    that gives you
	    7 years
	
	6. the mirror & time
	    the mirror IS NOT immortal
	    in fact it only has nine lives:
	
	    the first one is a thief
	    the second a baker
	    the third plays the harpsichord
	    the fourth lives in the iron-bound
	    section of newark &
	    eats pork sausage
	    the fifth predictably drinks
	    the sixth goes into the convent
	    but the seventh (this gets better)
	    marries her father
	    & humps up like a camel
	    the eighth cries a lot and ZAP
	    changes into a writer
	
	7. the mirror & metamorphosis
	
	    the eye    in the mirror    is the mirror     of the eye
	
	8. the mirror & the new math
	    inside the mirror
	    opens up like the number zero
	    you swim around in there
	    bob up
	    & drown
	    like the rat in Wonderland's flood.
	    your tail would like to hook a reason,
	
	    but you keep coming
	    face to face
	    breast to breast
	    with yourself.
	
	    you fall backwards & away, even
	    think that you are lost
	    In Oceanic O,
	
	    but you are still
	    pinned to an inverse.
	
	9. the mirror as a silent partner
	    the mirror never talks
	    it is always astounded
	    with its O mouth open
	    & everything falling in
	
	Epilogue:
	    Always straining toward her image, the girl
	    let go.
	
	    Tentacles of light
	    unlocked
	    like hooks of parasite
	
	    & she came back
	    in dark so dark,
	
	she cannot see by sight
	                                           -- Toi Derricotte