Through The Looking Glass

When my dentist friend meets me for after-work drinks

I worry he first notices my teeth

Still stained from too much coffee

He’s thinking, oh, she needs to take care of that.

Her smile would be so much brighter.

 

Or something like the first few dates with a psychologist

I often wondered if I was being analyzed across the table

While trying to dodge tell-tale signs of my insecurities.

In the end, it was me who was analyzing him.

 

We next come to writers and how we move through the world around us.

I listen to other people’s conversations, eavesdropping

And lurk on social media for snips of phrases:

Satchanada’s Twitter, “The comfort zone is where dreams go and die.”

Or my niece’s lament of wishing to live in the sky.

 

I read the morning paper to see what is going on around town,

And stumble on hidden treasures

Like that Carl Sagan article and his quote, “We are made of star stuff.”

I take these gems gathered here and there to polish into poems

Some I save in my bag of writing seeds for later.