Mirror, Mirror

by Lesléa Newman

Mirror, mirror, on the wall

I look to you to speak the truth:
Who’s the fairest of them all?

My dance card full at every ball

I sparkled like a jewel with youth,

Mirror, mirror on the wall.

I once inspired men to brawl,

my brand new beauty sleek and smooth

I was the fairest of them all.

But now old age has come to call

and I’ve grown longer in the tooth,

Mirror, mirror on the wall.

I spent a fortune at the mall

and hours in a make up booth,

Am I the fairest of them all?

Shrouded in a wrinkled pall

I beg you not to be uncouth:
Mirror, mirror on the wall,

Say I’m the fairest of them all.

* * * * *

“Mirror, Mirror” copyright ©2018 Lesléa Newman from Lovely (Headmistress Press, Sequim, WA). Here is a book trailer for Lovely: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fh27-KoGS84.

Lesléa Newman is a poet, fiction writer, essayist, children’s book writer and anthologist whose 70 books include the poetry collections, Still Life with Buddy, Nobody’s Mother, Signs of Love, and October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard (novel-in-verse) which received a Stonewall Honor from the American Library Association. Ms. Newman’s literary awards include poetry fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Massachusetts Artists Foundation; the Burning Bush Poetry Prize; and second place runner-up in the Solstice Literary Journal poetry competition. From 2008-2010 she served as the poet laureate of Northampton, Massachusetts. Currently she is a faculty member of Spalding University’s low-residency MFA in Writing program. A recent poetry collection, I Carry My Mother, received the 2016 Golden Crown Literary Society Poetry Award and was named a “Must-Read” title by the Massachusetts Center for the Book. Her latest book is Lovely (Headmistress Press, Sequim, WA).