When you look in a
mirror, you don’t see what you
actually look like. Instead,
you’ve been flipped 180
degrees clockwise. Your ears are switched,
eyes reversed, front teeth flipped. Florida is where
California once melted into Mexico. Maine extends
into Canada and Washington retreats into itself.
You’re made to look bigger, uglier, unhappier.
You see yourself with sad eyes
and wish that you were thinner,
prettier, happier. Sunny California sings
in your smile yet all you can see is the stormy
skies of Michigan.
The mirror is a window into your
heart, the image you’ve made for yourself,
looking back at you accusingly.
The glass of the mirror
tells the truth but your eyes
lie. The Atlantic and the Pacific have gotten
lost along the way and don’t know how
to get back home. Why do you see yourself
as less than you truly are?
Why can’t you see that you’re
beautiful, just like that?
You shut your eyes and wish
that you were cute, skinny, smiling.
Warm Hawaii is snuffed by cool Alaska.
The blackness behind your lids
does you more justice than the
distortion you’ve made for yourself in
the mirror. The States are a mess.
-Rory Finnegan
mirror, you don’t see what you
actually look like. Instead,
you’ve been flipped 180
degrees clockwise. Your ears are switched,
eyes reversed, front teeth flipped. Florida is where
California once melted into Mexico. Maine extends
into Canada and Washington retreats into itself.
You’re made to look bigger, uglier, unhappier.
You see yourself with sad eyes
and wish that you were thinner,
prettier, happier. Sunny California sings
in your smile yet all you can see is the stormy
skies of Michigan.
The mirror is a window into your
heart, the image you’ve made for yourself,
looking back at you accusingly.
The glass of the mirror
tells the truth but your eyes
lie. The Atlantic and the Pacific have gotten
lost along the way and don’t know how
to get back home. Why do you see yourself
as less than you truly are?
Why can’t you see that you’re
beautiful, just like that?
You shut your eyes and wish
that you were cute, skinny, smiling.
Warm Hawaii is snuffed by cool Alaska.
The blackness behind your lids
does you more justice than the
distortion you’ve made for yourself in
the mirror. The States are a mess.
-Rory Finnegan