The Man With The Mirror

There is a man, a friend of mine,
who took a large mirror
and placed it before me, saying
Look! See!
This is who you are.
This is you.
Look! See!
This is where you are.
Now, what are you going to do about it?

And in the mirror
I saw a cold, stone truth
pulsing with the beat of a human heart.
I saw everything I had ever known
and everything I had forgotten
as if for the first time.
And I also saw a crack.
And as I looked,
the crack grew wider.

A broken mirror cannot be mended.
It must change into something new:
shards of broken glass
or a mosaic of light.

So, what am I going to do about it?

I shall pick up the pieces
and plant them like seeds,
nurture them, feed them
and love them:
and then watch them grow.

1994