VALENTINE'S DAY
By: Gracie Wallner, Writing Editor
The mirror, smooth and smudged
Slightly
By fingertip swirls
She stands in the quiet
Lamp shade shadow
Tries to cover her shivering skin
“Legs like tree trunks and stomach too full,”
She thinks
And gazes
At the forlorn reflection who stares back.
She takes a step
Closer
That too small,
That too big…
The mirror
Glints with a mocking smile
One
More
Step
Towards self
separated by glass
She raises her palm,
The glass is cold, hard, unforgiving
The palm and its twin
Rest
Pressed against
The other,
She looks into her own eyes
A breath–
pause
“I love you,”
And I do
It’s hard to love
Yourself
Sometimes
But I do.