The Abandoned Mirror: A Poem of Memory, Ruin, and Heartache

Je suis la plaie et le couteau !

(I am the wound and the knife!)

— Charles Baudelaire, Les Fleurs du mal I dare not ever forget

I dare not forget
the ruin impossible to bury
in the depths
of an abandoned mirror
cast into our lives.

It is the knife
you used to cleave my heart.

Yet, for all the unhappiness
you inflicted on me,
I will keep searching
deep within the mirror
until I dig up your blade,

just in case
you’ll want to use it on me
time and time again