Mirror - Sylvia Plath

I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.
Whatever I see I swallow immediately
Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike.
I am not cruel, only truthful—
The eye of a little god, four-cornered.
Most of the time I meditate on the opposite wall.
It is pink, with speckles. I have looked at it so long
I think it is part of my heart. But it flickers.
Faces and darkness separate us over and over.

Now I am a lake. A woman bends over me,
Searching my reaches for what she really is.
Then she turns to those liars, the candles or the moon.
I see her back, and reflect it faithfully.
She rewards me with tears and an agitation of hands.
I am important to her. She comes and goes.
Each morning it is her face that replaces the darkness.
In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old woman
Rises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish.

smarani makes prayer - Safia Elhillo

verily everything that is lost will be
given a name & will not come back
but will live forever

& verily a border-shaped wound will
be licked clean        by songs naming
the browngirl        in particular        verily she
will not heal but        verily the ghosts will
not leave her alone verily when asked how
she got her name        if telling the truth        she
will say        [a woman died        & everything
                                wants a home]


De: The January Children, University of Nebraska Press, 2017.