Self-Image

To reflect without a mirror leaves little room to fool yourself.

Self-Image
                  by Odin Roark

Once of water
Man first eyed himself
Perhaps leaning to drink
Club in one hand
Food clenched firmly in the other

Even today

How arresting first glance must be
While a mother hovers
Cooing with pride
The infant stares up
A crib’s mobile of heart-mirrors
Reflecting images just beginning

Sooner than later
Such imitative echoes become real
Revealing deception’s potency
Urging actuality into the shadows
Giving inner truth little chance

Such becomes one’s three-way mirror
What others see
What might be
What is inexorable

Façade’s reflection

Vague
Invented
Contorted
Mired
Forged

Such folly
Mere antecedent
Ultimately without a trace