Text-only versions available via corresponding links. All accompanying photographs by Fred Clavél.

MIRROR MIRROR

by Fred Clavél

 

I've borne many a verse
Given direction to impulse
But in the warm of this icy night
My strength is failing me.

I beg your pardon
This is not simply the ranting
Of a twice-bitten tongue.
This is my plea for respite.
This is my cry for a dead wind.
This is me
Silent and reaching for your steady hand.

I'm urging you...
Take from me this fire
Before it burns me alive.
But whatever you do,
Never become my precipice
And force my feet from earth
To the black, black of yesterday.

I am like so much flotsam in your breath
Descending towards the source and smiling
For despite the sweet, warm winds of the fall,
Everything around me is completely upside-down.