• When I smile, he smiles –
    We are not two mirrors facing,
    We are rather coinciding –
    One proportional, one magnified,
    One and the same, yet back to back.
    Our reflections never deflect;
    Our dawns are born twelve hours apart,
    Not only fixed and glued in place,
    But face the horizon in love and hate,
    Sounding off, announcing the sun
    When we see the cordial glimmer arise.
    If only he had his own hand mirror,
    (Not two sided, no details, no expense,)
    He would glance through and back
    Gaze setting on the mold crafting my foundation,
    Crafting my words, crafting my conscience.
    I, on the other side, follow his movements,
    My movements, our movements,
    With my own hand mirror,
    (One sided, no details, no expense,)
    Turning slightly, yet resolutely,
    As I have made common here,
    Upon actions fueled by memories late,
    Rounded, sanded, scorched alive,
    And saved aplenty in deep intrinsic pockets.
    No wasted sunlight to cast a shadow,
    All filtered through a screen set against a meadow,
    To place a silhouette, one memorized over years,
    Of glancing, so timidly, with my gilded instrument.
    We are one and the same, yet back to back;
    Tracing perfection across, around, and up
    The sunscript canvas.
    Dawns lengthening, realizing, fusing,
    Rendering night the evening, everlasting,
    Coming together, questions, answers, prisms,
    Beauty in crisis, in red and yellow.
    Strokes we conduct across with light,
    Machines to create worlds our very own,
    Enabling, programming, endlessly insisting,
    Blasted into reality, using ourselves as a summon,
    As a unit, as inseparable as can exist.
    Mirrors coinciding, in possession of others,
    In view, just beyond the outcroppings,
    Those people who do not understand,
    Those, whose reflections deflect,
    Whose sunlight casts shadows,
    Whose smiles seem luminous,
    But upon closer inspection in another life,
    (Examining together, analyzing, coexisting,)
    Are pitiful, undesirable, not worth the catalyst
    To make such emotions, not when
    Your friend whose life you share
    Brings a genuine one every day without excuse.
    They aid our cause, in full perspective,
    The vehicle of tedious origins,
    Our one and one only,
    A great crowd in the audience tonight –
    Carrying us forward with shattering applause –
    Absorption of impulsive response renders us
    Splintered, wood deserving of the chipper.
    We bond overtime again, but cracks do not mend;
    Our carnival does not end, the lions, the tamers,
    Feeble hypnotists from abroad, trick mirrors slanted,
    Leaning towards us, taunting, contorting,
    Haunting, voices it reflects uttering the diagnosis,
    Still, the applause, night again, and again –
    Dawn repairs, but cracks begin to widen:
    He loses pieces, I lose fragments, we lose ourselves,
    The whole as seen by the pile we create
    Seems like a reflection without a mirror.
    Amid crowds of ghosts, gypsies, criminals,
    Figments from places we know,
    Broken by years of performances
    Stolen by the vagabonds, the smugglers,
    Hiding beyond the outcroppings.
    I sit upon the rock, he sits upon the rock,
    One we chose without much decision,
    Not a coincidence, I should hope;
    Even though our molds are misshapen, lost,
    But I say a word, and then ask a question –
    (Not easy, after all this time)
    One object seemingly discussing itself,
    But fondly, the other half responds –
    And you can tell he is smiling.
    We forget the meager instruments,
    We disregard the sun,
    We wave off the crowd,
    Who followed us from the meadow,
    We perfect our posture despite our wounds,
    Not only as equals, but as partners,
    Always aware, sometimes simply not bold enough,
    But to sit here now, contemplating existence,
    Praising opportunity,
    Loving fate,
    Quiet resumes, like the lonely times,
    As if we were polished,
    Prime, lean, and responsive again –
    In full health: reflective, effective, familiar,
    We coincide, one or two, whichever you'd prefer,
    Bonded by mold, glue, and glass.