Staring at a Mirror’s Back by Thomas Zimmerman

You’re using “you” in poems these days, the dreaded
second person. So, you’ve found no way
inside yourself—it’s just like staring at
a mirror’s back—and “you” might blast a path?
Each new day, you re-enact a dimly
lit creation myth. Ten thousand iterations
ought to do the trick: from chaos, to
an ever-morphing set of forms, to entropy.
The tragedies you love—Macbeth and Lear
and Oedipus—have given you a glimpse
of this, a life’s small arc refined to art.
Last night, the burgers sizzling on the grill,
you sat cross-legged, oracular, and drank
a beer. The revelation: shadows, smoke.

About the Poet:

Thomas Zimmerman teaches English, directs the Writing Center, and edits The Big Windows Review https://thebigwindowsreview.com/ at Washtenaw Community College, in Ann Arbor, Michigan. His poems have appeared recently in Black Coffee Review, Ephemeral Elegies, and Molecule. Tom’s website: https://thomaszimmerman.wordpress.com/