Sick with Shadows:The Mirror's Tale

When you look at him

your eyes become moats

swirling around you

In a stream barely

as wide as the boats

promising rescue.

I couldn't hear 

his sirens approach

When could you?

He was a crook 

with a name like Death

and he hooked you.

My eyes cracked 

with tears at your sigh.

I was your mirror

your shield and your lie

Hoping you would see 

a future within me

but knowing someday 

you would look beyond me.

When I reflected 

upon his approach. 

I begged you 

to see me.

But you listened only 

to his bugles blow

and their shrill 

cracking.

I shuttered like the curious pictures 

that change when someone looks.

Burning with a furious passion 

unwritten in your books.

You were the Lady of Shallot

living visions I sought too.

It's not that mirrors reflect their own thoughts

I'm dreaming about you.

You said it was just

your reflection that bored you

So you never noticed 

how much I adored you.

I'm swept up 

in a furious river

that washed 

the tears away

an empty frame

stretched curious pictures 

of the day 

you sailed away.

I was shattered 

with tears at your side.

I was just a mirror

your guilt and your pride.

Your dance crazed the loom 

that was our nest

it's web would surround you

Tangling your soft hair 

in his crest

as it's colors 

astound you.

When I dream of death

your lips 

cease 

to steam me

The crash 

of a shard 

of your kiss 

falling cleanly.

Death freed you from 

the castle where I kept

reliving my dreams 

when or if I have slept

I can't even look 

out a window and see true

For the sea as a gravestone 

rolls constantly over you.

Your eyes cracked 

with tears at my side

I was your mirror

your world was my pride.

I made you think that

it might be inside me

Hoping to keep you 

close and beside me.

You are the Lady of Shallott

Living dreams that would not sleep

Trapped in a castle 

where yours was the keep.

You couldn't look 

out a window or see

passed dim visions 

reflecting from me

Watching from angles 

you prayed to be free

Your curse wouldn't see

your true beauty through me.

I'm swept up in the furious ocean

that floats past everyday.

All my life it's been that curious 

potion I drink to drift away.

You were the Lady of Shallott

living the visions I brought you.

A mirror was just

a thin window beside you.

The visions I shadowed 

have shattered inside me.

Now only those fragments 

can reach me so deeply

as did the Lady of Shallott.

c  c/g f  capo 3