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.