“The Mirror” by Lytton Bell
Look into the mirror and do not flinch
You can see Death now rubbing her hands together
spotted, wrinkled, bulging with veins
engulfing every part of you without judgment
You’re a woman with no past
always threading her needles on the first try
a flurry of diet pills and designer jeans
never to be all you might have been
You could be lost and not know it
a castle with no drawbridge, no welcome
and nothing rustles when you move
and the answer never came
You can be Shakespeare for five minutes
see how the sun rose when you lifted your hand?
It glows in you no matter where you are
in the man you love, now quietly removing his pants
his gleaming desire swelling
seeking to fill and be filled
You are taller than lightning
How the world must have glittered beneath you!
A hand twisting the golden knob of a door
caressing you anonymously
Now, walk the path with your pulse in your throat
Listen: this is your prayer
the stoplight eternally stuck on green
with your name etched right into its crystal skin
asks you with a voice of peaches and rain
Are you ever jealous of the cool hush of the emerald forest?
Every bird you see is a prayer
When they see you coming, they hunch like vultures
swiping a tender wing over a clutch of bright blue eggs
You were the breeze that wasn’t there
I hear you tell your reflection
Flame inside my own soul, I refuse to fear you
the magic moves when you move
so it never has to feel left behind
Your reflection asks you back:
Did you think of me with your last breath?
And you whisper
Not even you can see me
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Lytton Bell Artist Statement:
Lytton Bell has published five books: A Path before Winter (1998), The Book
of Chaps (2002), Nectar (2011), Poetica Erotica, Volume 1 (2012) and Body
Image (2013), won eight poetry contests and has been the featured reader at
many California literary venues. Her work has appeared in over six dozen
publications. She is a founding member of the poetry performance troupe
Poetica Erotica. As a teenager, Lytton won a scholarship to the Pennsylvania
Governor’s School for the Arts, where she studied with Deb Burnham of the
American Poetry Review and the late Len Roberts, author of The Silent Singer.
Lytton graduated magna cum laude from Bryn Mawr College. She is a civil
servant by day. Email her at lytton_bell@hotmail.com.
