Friday's Whims of the Time Traveler 98.0: Fall 2009

Morning Shadows
by Belinda Roddie

Five thirty in the morning, and my eyes are open.

Time for you to put on your face for the day,
draw the stiff, starched collar around your throat.
Time to brush your teeth until your gums bleed,
dip your fingers into the sink’s still waters
and wipe the shadows from your eyes.

You’re getting older, dear.
The wrinkles say so,
and you don’t hide your traumas well.
A mask wouldn’t suit you any better.
Smooth out the creases.
Let there be the illusion that each day,
you are reborn.

Six thirty in the morning, and my eyes shut tight.

The work you see here was written in the fall of 2009. It was last edited in December of the same year.

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