FreePoetSociety

Mirror Me never seems to be my true self Shifting and changing the highs and lows Like having to pick from a cluttered shelf Strangers with the same face and clothes Mirror Me, while seldom, can be my best Happiness shining beyond just my face Letting my heart leap out of my chest All negativing vanishing without a trace Mirror Me is usually the face of my worst Sullen and pale with no light in my eyes Trying to hold back tears before they burst Feeling ugly and empty as my spirit dies All I want to see is that spark of life Mirror Me overcoming daily strife

(Intended to be read very fast) A smidgen of religion flew off with a carrier pigeon into bourgeoisie sea of potpourri The only thing that was a guarantee was that everyone would disagree Many felt god was just a facade to keep us in pods with a control rod until we are buried underneath their green sod Tighten the dog collar live in squalor while chasing after the mighty dollar The resident president came on the news spilling moronic thoughts like black liquid ooze We can no longer ignore that the marine corps needs to be deployed There are so many nations causing complications with all our pre-conceived expectations Our relations should be one of confrontation accusations and allegations More money for the corporations justifies our continuous occupations We will not be deterred by ramifications public relations, demonstrations, or publications There will be no negotiations Don’t worry about the cause or any laws Just join in the applause and wave that flag proudly upon

Who’s the shadow underneath the mask Who’s the sad clown With a knife behind her back Who’s the secret whisperer And the maker of all dreams Who’s the fragile thread That connects present with the past Who’s the conqueror of pain Who is the child hurt and who licks the scars Who’s the voice that never stops As long as time ticks Who’s the watcher behind the tinted glass The true self never dies Covered by dirt and shame it hides It struggles its way through the tides The shadow and the mask The nameless one behind both lies

Look beyond the oneness Look towards the gateless gate It is there you’ll meet your reflection And shatter the mirror of the mind A million suns, a million universes Who knows how many there have been In this vast ocean of being Do not waste effort trying to grasp them

Night has fallen black as ink as we stand around the fire. Stars have frozen shadows slink unheeded through the mire. Woodsmoke, embers, sulphur, ash, they seep through every fibre. I'll keep my clothes pristine, unwashed, to feel the wild for longer. Of you, of them, my foes, my friends, I can see no faces. Eyes glinting coals, skin hot, breath cold, snow trapped in all our creases. Your hand open reaching out, and I reach out to find you. But when we touch I feel the winter, ancient ice inside you. Far from home and far from love we stand around the fire. Cold earth below, black sky above our endless, silent pyre.

Winter was in full swing in the icy continent of Antarctica. The temperatures had dropped to -40 Fahrenheit and the winds raged at ninety miles per hour. Orca whales were navigating the ocean, looking for fish and squid to eat, seals were hauling out on land to rest, and albatrosses were wandering across the sky. But most importantly, all the penguins were getting ready to migrate to their colonial breeding grounds, because winter in Antarctica was a very important time for them to breed with other penguins and hatch offspring. Together, the penguins waddled, hopped, and tobogganed on their bellies as they made their way to the breeding grounds, which were sixty to a hundred miles away from the mainland. Once they got there, they would begin to mate. One day, an emperor penguin and his female mate had finally reached the breeding grounds, and the female penguin had already laid an egg. But she was not going to stay around to hatch it. Instead, she handed it off to her male mate so he