Poem in Pinestraw Magazine

It has been such a privilege that Pinestraw Magazine in North Carolina asked to publish a second poem of mine. This one is the introductory poem in my novel, What the Mirrors Knew.

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE MIRROR

"Let's pretend the glass has got all soft like gauze...And certainly the glass was beginning

to melt away, just like a bright silvery mist." Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass

There's always a reason I'd rather stay home,

as I brush my hair, gaze into my reflection, sit

before the dresser where I combed my curls

as a girl, forever getting ready for the life

that hadn't arrived yet. Mirrors remained

unfazed, as I exchanged one image for another,

changed my hairstyles and hats, traced fingers

along a scar, abandoned myself for imperfections.

I have come close to escaping into another world,

always about to leave or about to live, my eyes

child-like, clear as glass, considering what time

it must be...to keep from disappearing

into my own unbreakable stare.

Linda Annas Ferguson