The Hall Of Broken Mirrors

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Come stroll along the hall of broken mirrors

See the reflections that history has miscast

In the shattered shards and the jagged cracks

Where memories regurgitate their past repast

 

The clouds that float in time’s slow charade

Soak the shrouds of ancient and dark recall

Divert the glare of the judgmental multitude

From the backward momentum of their fall

 

Morphing reflections catch dancing shadows

In brief glimpses through time-strewn glass

Choose which moments should be swept or hung

In a collective gallery of non-critical mass

 

There’s a non-contextual misshapen refocus

That keeps secrets shielded away from the sun

Should the hall be shut down and extinguished

Obliterating the grounds grey ghosts overrun?

 

I recline with feet propped up on a fence rail

Pondering the illusion of the mirrors and smoke

As I dress wounds from the razor sharp fragments

And wonder if life is just the penultimate joke?

 

…………… and I break another mirror

 

 

                         s. paul   (Feb. 2022)