A Glass Villanelle

Reflections on Reflections

I

When she was just a body, she stopped before the mirror

Approving. Disapproving. Dazed by the light’s refraction

Gaze into that glass for long enough, she’s hoping to see clearer

II

Vanity. Insanity. Combined this glass delivers

Impervious to gravity, the high demand for attraction

When she was just a body, she stopped before the mirror

III

A wrinkle, a fold, the affrontery of the old and inferior

A backside that sags, old eyes with their bags. All infractions

Of the rules, as ideal’s failure grows clearer

IV

Dysmorphia as guide, still she subscribes to the body superior

A fragile chin held up high, a slave to beauty’s abstraction

Her tummy held in tight. Just a body before the mirror

V

To age. To digress. To accept nonetheless, and forgive her

Wonder and ponder, cooly upon her changing reflection

Nothing more one can do, as the form and face grow clearer

VI

Know you exceed, what the standards of beauty deliver

Gifts not yet open promise satisfaction

With the sum of our flesh stood before our mirror

Gaze into the glass, and see your beauty grow clearer

Originally published at https://elizabethnuanain.substack.com on February 3, 2023.