Your Words Are My Reflection

Author's Note: The following is the 8th poem in my self-challenge to write a poem a day. 

Click here for the first poem in this challenge. Thank you for reading and wish me luck to keep the pace ❤

My reflection does not belong to me;

My features slowly replaced with words.

They stick to me like glue - 

"Fat," "Ugly," "Stupid," and "Lazy."

These words repeating each day anew,

Stabbing my insides like swords.

. . .

The face in the mirror is but a stranger's - 

Tear-filled, puffy, and splotchy.

Her spirit has been subdued,

Her eyes filled with doubt and fear;

With such self-loathing that is undue.

I do not know her, nor does she know me.

. . .

This face does not belong to me

Your words have endured

Stuck with me through the years

To me, they've remained ever glued

Until I did not recognize the face I see

A face only recognizable by the tears

. . .

This stranger's face in the mirror

Holds her hands slowly out to me.

On her palms are written those words - 

"Fat," "Ugly," "Stupid," and "Lazy."

Your hatred and jealousy she has endured;

Stuck ever fighting against the fear.

. . .

And with these words, I know her.

With these words, she knows me, too - 

"Fat," "Ugly," "Stupid," and "Lazy."

These words bind the two of us together,

And as they bind she and I, they bind you, too - 

For when I look in the mirror, it's your words I see.

. . .

© Lena Folkert 2022

Originally published on Medium

. . .

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Author's Note: Thank you for honoring me with a read. If you've enjoyed what you've read, please click on the 🖤 and explore my other work. All reads, likes, tips, and pledges feed my writer's soul and give me the fuel to keep sitting down at my computer to bleed out words.

Xx - Lena