inspired by a bean counter {poetry thursday}

Open, Close

The reflection imitates
as the hand sweeps mahogany hair
across the forehead, then tucks strands behind the ear
and adjusts the turquoise beaded earring.
The fingertips trace the ruby rose mouth,
pausing at the plump bottom lip
as a thought prompts a tooth to catch the edge.
The gaze, eyes to eyes,
brown swirled caramel
like eggwhites into a ribbon of batter.
I think, Is this who I am?
with the rhythm of each lowered lid.


Even though it invited fear in this little heart of mine, I took the challenge of this week's (totally optional) idea and asked Cate if I could borrow a line from this poem. I have been working with an image and words for a poem for a little while now, and a line from Cate's poem seemed to fit. But then, I couldn't seem to move the words very far. So I went back and looked at her poem again. Then Lynn sent me a picture she took at the art/street fair we went to Saturday and several lines came to me all at once. As I worked with the images of the above poem, the line "like eggwhites into a ribbon of batter" suddenly had a place. (I will share the picture tomorrow...but for now, I just want to leave you with the images of this poem. Thank you for reading.)

Discover more poetry at Poetry Thursday. Happy reading.