I Looked at Myself in a Mirror

 Time played tricks on my body

My face turned into a mask

Years passed and pushed my face

Into the depth of an abyss

And it fell and fell, and fell

It went through the test of time

I looked at myself in a mirror but not to look

At the face that I remembered

No. Not the face I remembered

The face I remembered was a fantasy

A fantasy I built dream by dream

Events that never happened forever gone

Dreams dreamed, and nothing else

Dreams dreamed took my youth

Gone somewhere. I don’t know where

Somewhere, an hourglass shattered beauty

And me loving you, kissing you

Kisses like breakers licking the rocks

The wind and its enraged roaring

The fragrance of your love

And you, urging me to subdue you

Long, long now, I held your hand

Yet, my soul stopped following

Your footsteps in the burning sand

Aye, labyrinths populated my face

And I challenged myself to find two tears in the maze

The arrogance of youth tossed into space

Wrapped in whims gone, my arrogance

The weight of my soul crushed my new hopes

And my skin dried; it shed its firmness away

And became dissected in scales like a mythical fish

That forgot to swim and, instead, nestled in the rugged stone

And became salt and dry earth, and root, and rock

Somewhere, an hourglass shattered

Beauty, love, desire, all with the years gone

But in my mind, memories anchored still

One by one, like grapes in a bunch

And raised a cup and drank the wine

The wine from those grapes

And I looked at myself in a mirror but not to look

At the face that I remembered

But to look at the dregs in my cup

Dregs of memories in the labyrinths of my face.