Mirror on the Wall
@azurePond
This poem was thrilling and really got my imagination going. It has aspects that are both mysterious and horrifying. One can read it as allegorical; looking at the disconnect between the image portrayed and the inner world and how they cannot coexist for the narrator in harmony as one attempts to justify the one whilst vainly trying to deny the other, with an unseen voice of the world at large pressurising the decision to choose one over the other.
However, I was most excited by reading it straight as is; The narrator looking in the mirror and seeing something not quite right, something wrong and out of synch. An implied sentience watching and waiting. It is the stuff out of nightmares, and it is excellent. Furthermore, as we watch the narrator stare, the other arguing voice denying what the senses reveal becomes more ambiguous. Is it a well intentioned other speaking, or the narrator's own inner voice desperately attempting to fend off the horrid revelation? A gothic horror or a dissent into breakdown.
Loved it.