Gym Mirrors

Over time a gym can change within a person’s mind.

A carnival house of mirrors ever-shifting for one’s eyes.

It reaches through your corneas and rummages around,

And sees the bodies you have seen then weighs you pound by pound.

Suspended then your body is, in view and on all sides.

Hooks and calipers stretching; there’s nowhere you can hide.

Distortion follows ‘til you’re home and haunts the mirrors there,

A stretched-self inescapable and yielding to despair.

And discipline’s a funny word, addiction might be better,

That sees you up at 4am and trying to be fitter.

With weights you try to fill the places mirrors stretched too thin

And running is a butcher’s cleaver, hacking at your skin.

What’s best and cruellest is the mirrors often do their work,

And shame will shape your hated flesh for affirmation’s perks.

“So strong and full of energy”, your friends’ well-meaning cries.

But the mirrors are relentless and will call their praises lies.