Improv: “The Night Mirror” by John Hollander
Looking at her face showed the same guise,
a vertical panel of teeth not yet grown.
The child’s knowledge of the Grand Canyon
and its nightmares does not glimpse so easily
upon her face. She sits as if on a Windsor chair
brightened by faux sunlight, scrambling to tell
me something but all that came were gutturals
and half knowing smiles. The ledge of her crib
was where she lingered, spying the unknown
world to colonize as the pale window moonlighted
as her heaven. The mirror she gazed through, through
her simulacrum but unaware that its reflection
was not of another. Welling from within she did
not fear it’s nightly gaze upon her closet. She
always knew what it was before as her lids
closed, unhinged by the soft side of her pillow.
Encouraging draft, Randie. Perhaps now you might think of expanding the draft. It's a bit tight as is.
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