Self-portrait in front of a misty mirror

The glass is cold to touch,
fogged up with early morning
bathroom steam. A drop
of condensation rolls from top
to bottom, clearing worm-holes
where pupil matches pupil.

Nose as close as glass allows
before my breath steams up the gap,
I see her eye, the cerulean
I would drown in as a child, the eye
I can only dream of now:
my inheritance.

Kim M. Russell, 15th April 2018

Mum and me when I was two025

My response to The Poetry School NaPoWriMo prompt for Day Day 15: Reflections.

Although I wrote this on 15th April, it was with the prompt in mind that I planned for dVerse Poets Pub Poetics: Body Image. Also linked to Imaginary Garden with Real Toads Tuesday Platform.

Today Ali would like us to write poems that feature mirrors or reflections in some way. One option is a self-portrait: tradition dictates these poems are called ‘Self-Portrait in an x Mirror’, like the first example poem today, a prose poem called ‘Self-portrait in front of a small mirror’ by Will Harris.

Ali says that we can also include mirrors (or other reflective surfaces) in plenty of other interesting ways, either overtly or subtly. He suggests reading Matthew Sweeney’s prose-poem ‘Huge Mirrors’, which centres the mirror itself rather than the reflection, and Thylias Moss’s ‘Lessons from a Mirror’, which uses the mirror as a jumping off point for a dissection of a fairy tale.

56 thoughts on “Self-portrait in front of a misty mirror”

    1. Thank you, Gillena. I’m having trouble keeping up at the moment; there are so many things going on at the same time, as well as missing out on a few days while I was away at a conference. Now exam season has started so I have to do my seasonal paid work too.They say there is no peace for the wicked, but I don’t have time to be even a little bit naughty! Much love 🙂

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  10. Those baby blues, kids like that remind me of a little Shirley Temple when they laugh. You certainly have a wonderful inheritance. (On a different note, I accidently hit the add my page button twice . Could you delete either one of the first two copies? I tried, but couldn’t make Mr. Linky work right, thanks.

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  21. You reveal a certain class by this poem. Perhaps this way of inheriting always has been misunderstood. We know the view is not a particular social view, it is rather a perception of fitness and responsibility. Nice touch.

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  26. A truly beautiful poem and it speaks volumes, The day before my mother died I saw myself in the bathroom mirror and felt the realisation that I had become my mother’s image. It was so heartbreaking as I think I knew it was a sign of her impending death. XXXXX much love to you. XXX

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    1. Thank you, Alison. There’s not a day goes by without thinking of Mum. The CRUSE counsellor was really good and now I’ve managed to banish the terrible image I carried around of how she looked the day before she died – now I only think of her as she was when she was young. xxx

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