REFLECTION IN A FOGGED MIRROR

suddenly, I glimpsed myself in the mirror—

not a face, but a flicker of absence

I traced the outline of my eyes,

those quiet abysses where meaning drowned

something in my pupils pulsed like a secret,

yearning to be named

I was there, yet not arrived—

a shadow staring back, unrecognized

still blind to myself,

I danced barefoot on the wet floor

of the bathroom where I had just bathed

I washed, I lathered, I scrubbed—

but the dust of your words,

your touches,

your touch,

your memory,

still clung to my skin—

naked, cold,

almost dead

I looked into the mirror

and saw not me,

but the you

I had created

to survive

alive?