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A mirror has a thousand eyes
A mirror tells no lies.
Every wrinkle, spot and blemish
Has no respect for what you wish.
Fat and flab have no chance at all.
Every grey hair is at morning roll call.
Every extra pound is cruelly shown
No matter how you wish for muscle tone.
A late night out and puffy eyelids tell
That all is not well.
There is no hiding from its merciless eyes
"You should look better," it cries.
And you stand there helpless.

But there is a way upon it to impress
The error of its perceived excess
And to show just precisely who is boss.
So you pick it up and toss
The wretched thing onto the floor.
After all we are at war.
It shatters into pieces pleasingly small,
But too late you recall,
A mirror has a thousand eyes
A mirror tells no lies.
A thousand eyes looking up at you
Giving now a thousand-eyed reflective view.

© Richard Strong, February 2009