No Body Is Perfect… :)

I sit staring at the wondrous mess I've made of things...

Glancing at the mirror reflecting the world behind me.

The dusty destruction of knick knacks, stuffed animals, and the yellowed pages of an old journal...

are scattered evenly in the reflection of the mirror…

The visual echo of the mistakes and the pitfalls, the whispers, and the motivations...

All are footprints of the path that led me to this tired room of dusty memories and long forgotten joys.

I don't have the strength nor the energy to escape this place…
I merely sit weakened and getting weaker...
Catalyzed by the objectivity of my own internal struggle.

How...

"Stretched" that makes me feel...

Stretched without the ability to pull myself together.

So I sit…

Staring at what my eyes can see while being bound to a dirty chair.
Held captive by the rope that I wove over a lifetime of blood, sweat, and tears...

Watching the holes in the wall and the crimson hand prints replay their story over and over…

Everything is broken…

Everything is dirty…

Even the one remaining photograph...
Depicted with in its dirty glass...
The smiling faces seem as if they are being forced to relive the events that cracked its frame and broke the rest of the smiling faces.

Everything is broken…

Everything is dirty…

Everything except for the mirror...
Reflecting broken toys and shattered dreams…
The surface of the mirror stands immaculate...

Passing along the details of the world behind him in such clarity that you would think the mirror itself stood filthy with the ugliness of its own reflection.

I think about this and the ropes loosen…
And I once again can find the strength to smile…

...and soon to stand…

I laugh like a man that’s free from all worry…
Oh the joy I feel in knowing...
That what comes next will clean this room of filth forever.

Staring intently at the reflection of the mirror with a fire that has not been lit in years…
And with merely a thought…
Nothing more complicated than a choice…

The glass shatters…

The pieces silently fall to the floor.
Calmly and indifferently...
I take a single knee...
Placing my hands briefly together in thanks

Brief. But necessary...

One by one, piece by piece...
I begin to turn the pieces of the mirror over
So that their faces will not reflect the ugliness of this place again…

With a smile and a tear...
I pick up a small piece that’s shaped like a heart
And place it face down into my pocket…

I am a sentimental fool… I chuckle…

I walk quickly to the door…
And I leave…
Taking with me only a small piece of the shattered existence I left behind…

After all…

No bodies perfect.... :)