A Reflection
If we saw each other every day,
Would you see me in any other way?
Maybe you’d tire of meeting my gaze
Always echoing a lifeless abyss.
The spark of my iris’ cradled only by you.
Our lives together are long overdue.
Do we wish upon the same stars,
When we plead for help to mend our scars?
Yours were deep, your blood spilled into mine
Though the gashes never truly felt full.
I always thought enough time spent with you,
Could fix that defect, make me anew.
Would you let us merge as one,
Even if it couldn’t be undone?
Our souls entwined like a ball of yarn,
The woven strands of two types of wool.
One too tangled to ever stop clinging
The other too coarse, like a cut still stinging.
Could our symphonies ever flow separately?
Your waves always crashing down atop of me.
Yet the music we make is too beautiful to waste,
A serene melody that collides with our hearts.
My mind gladly aware of the pain you shed,
The gas of light contorting the view in my head,
Making me see what I only dream of you to be.
A monster, perhaps. One that mirrors me.
By Lily Watson
What an intricate and moving poem, full of so much striking imagery: bringing us from the eye, to a wound, to entangled wool, to a musical seascape – and all achieved in a very successful rhyme scheme. I think the building of these disparate and at times lovely parts into something monstrous at the poem’s end is very thought-provoking, and really makes us think about the messier, more complex aspects of love and relationships. Sometimes our relationships can be beautiful and life-affirming, and sometimes they can bring out the worst in us. The poem seems to suggest this is a symptom of growing up and discovering who we really are, both inside and outside of these relationships.