A Distant Place

A Distant Place

Janelle Spiers

I looked in the mirror

And I saw a face;

A phantom vision,

In a distant place.

The figure contorted

And I reached out my hand.

I tried to touch it,

But I had no command.

The face was silent,

It stared like a star.

It was then that I realized

It was myself, from afar.

I looked in the mirror

At my strange unknown face

And wondered what happened

In that distant place.

Where was I now?

I wondered aloud,

When a dark veil unfolded

And all was a shroud.

I felt a tug

And a terrible pain.

The shroud was burning 

Like a flaming rain.

As the curtain lifted

And the smoke withdrew

I saw smoldering ash,

And it was then that I knew.

I stood behind the mirror

As my reflection died.

I lived now in a foreign world;

I bent my head and cried.

A brilliant light shone through the dust

And dried my weeping eyes.

A voice like thunder called to me,

And I began to rise.

As my body floated,

I saw a great face.

I was behind the mirror

In a distant place.