LOOKING BACK AT LIFE IN "THE MIRROR"

There’s a face staring back at her from the mirror,

The face of a person she doesn’t know.

Her eyes are sad,

Hardened by life.

Who is she?

Her youthful joy’s been replaced by resignation.

The mistakes.  The pain.  The past.

Haunted by all that should have been but wasn’t.

Still, her life is not a complete failure.

She raised a family,

But she rarely sees them now that they’re grown.

“If you don’t hear from them, that means you did your job right.”

She finds little comfort in those words.

She lives in a lonely world, feeling forgotten.

She’s never been good at being a friend,

At being a wife,

And maybe even at being a mother, daughter, sister…

Maybe that’s why she’s alone.

“You made your bed, now you must lie in it,” they say.

Who is this person staring back at her from the mirror?

With hair that’s going grey,

With lines and wrinkles interrupting the appearance of youth,

With eyes that speak of loneliness and sorrow…

Without saying a word.

Where did the joy go?  The zest for life?  The hope?  The faith in those stars?

When did she stop being a dreamer?

When did I grow so old?