Triplets - Ellie Portner

REFLECTION

I grow older

In a small round mirror

That sits beside my bathroom sink

It counts the etches on my face

Reflects on sagging skin

And finds every fault

It tells me things I wish

I no longer cared to know

But once in a while

Beneath the reflection

I see a scarred brown sea turtle

Swimming contentedly

Through summer sea grasses

That bend with passing currents

                 ***

Sunflowers

When my breasts

Have fallen to my waist

And my clothes creep

Into folds of flesh

I will sit in the sun’s warmth

My hands at rest on my lap

I will watch insects flit

Between sunflowers

Full and bent

And listen to the earth

Whisper beneath their stems

              ***

THE MUSE

she is fickle

she does not meet commitments

nor give assurances

time for her has no boundaries

sometimes

she withdraws

and I am afraid

she will not return

I tempt her back

with whispered promises

I do not keep

I do not trust her

the one who shares my solitude

who comes to me

to fill the empty places

               ***