Man in the mirror

 Open eyes

John Clare Stokes

He was between the age of nine and ten

When his eyes were opened

Up until then

There were few mirrors to gaze in

He had little concept of being him

But in that new parsonage 

with the first bedroom ever his own

he stared long at this image 

the full length mesmerizing 

the scars down the left shoulder

chest, throat and arm from the boy of two

who pulled the coffee pot cord off

the stove scalding now at the between 

nine and ten causing the self conscious 

introspective, artistic poetic  life to begin

seldom going shirtless when swimming 

cringing when the scars were seen

with the non scarred staring and

offering their unnecessary commentary

Since between nine and ten

in that West Washington parsonage

when the boys eyes were opened

sad he would think of those without

mirrors or scars who never have a clue

who they are.

Heavenly Hurt, it gives us-

We can find no scar,

But internal difference,

Where the Meanings, are-

Emily Dickinson

“Man shouldn’t be able to see his own face — there’s nothing more sinister. Nature gave him the gift of not being able to see it, and of not being able to stare into his own eyes. Only in the water of rivers and ponds could he look at his face. And the very posture he had to assume was symbolic. He had to bend over, stoop down, to commit the ignominy of beholding himself. The inventor of the mirror poisoned the human heart.”

— Fernando Pessoa