Who am I?
I ask the face in the mirror
What do you think about?
What makes you tick?
I can ask these questions all day
yet never get an answer
from the silent reflection
that lies within
I plead and I beg
Still the mirror never tells me
the things i need to know
I’ve lost touch with myself
over the years
I’ve built up defenses
so that i can not be hurt
especially from within
and so have become a hollow shell
Having run out of tears long ago
I cannot cry for anyone
not even myself
so cry for me someone
…please
I ask the face in the mirror
What do you think about?
What makes you tick?
I can ask these questions all day
yet never get an answer
from the silent reflection
that lies within
I plead and I beg
Still the mirror never tells me
the things i need to know
I’ve lost touch with myself
over the years
I’ve built up defenses
so that i can not be hurt
especially from within
and so have become a hollow shell
Having run out of tears long ago
I cannot cry for anyone
not even myself
so cry for me someone
…please
–Gary Rosenberg 17
Welcome old friend
I greet my reflection
and thank you for joining me today
There’s no answer
but by his smile
i know its ok
and the greeting from my oldest friend is heartfelt
For a long while I thought we had lost touch
that i was but a shell
and he but an uncaring trick of the light
Little did i know that it was a cocoon
that would soon emerge
able to do, able to be, able to love and be loved
a sublime intricate moth
even if no butterfly
Who knew the old caterpillar had me inside.
If i could send him just one message
that caterpillar, so bitter, afraid and alone
through the ever patient reflection
that we have shared through time
“It gets better”
—Gary Rosenberg, 47