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Issue # 5 September 2011
"... brevity is the soul of wit ..."
- William Shakespeare

Valerie Schermerhorn


 

Reflection

My eighty year old mother talks to my reflection in the looking glass
tells me it's time to grant myself a gentler look in the morning mirror.

Says I should know better living
on the water, reminds me how the lake pulls

clouds from the sky and drops them on its surface
like mounds of cream in coffee.

Says with the lake's help trees rise twice as high
flaunting themselves, bearing no shame for their size.

Upon reflection I can see that nature makes the most of itself.
I've watched a blue heron synchronize with her shadow

flap her wings leaving ample room for her companion
which of course was just herself.