{"id":10151,"date":"2023-06-09T15:53:11","date_gmt":"2023-06-09T20:53:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/faithhopeandfiction.com\/content\/?p=10151"},"modified":"2023-06-09T15:53:26","modified_gmt":"2023-06-09T20:53:26","slug":"mirrors-dont-lie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/faithhopeandfiction.com\/content\/mirrors-dont-lie\/","title":{"rendered":"Mirrors Don’t Lie"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"Locket<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

A Poem by Joseph Roque<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

<\/strong>Mirrors Don\u2019t Lie<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Just like that, I appeared\u2015
\nscathingly small, naked and defenseless.
\nSo many things I didn\u2019t know when I was born, and so
\nmany more no one told me as I grew\u2015
\nmy parents instinctively protective.
\nBut in the end, it\u2019s all about the secrets kept hidden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wouldn\u2019t have mattered where I was raised\u2015
small, sleepy, safe Midwestern town or flagrantly filthy
big city with concrete and steel playgrounds, voraciously
waiting to eat me alive. Turns out, everywhere has its own
dangers\u2014just a matter of degree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years blur, but I never noticed them,
too busy soaking in the juvenile joy of fearless freedom
and imagined immortality.
But aging is not random, does not make exceptions.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The beauty and magic of youth is in its total immunity
to the concept of life cycles or expiration dates.
Dreams soar, love blooms and life is good until,
in a blink, everyone around me asked,
\u201cWill you retire soon?\u201d \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nightmares nagged of a gold watch
and a collection of crossword puzzles\u2014
gifts at my retirement party.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then Fate stepped in with a vision
and a whisper, revealing the secret kept from me\u2015
\u201cDon\u2019t ever look in a mirror once you\u2019ve grown.\u201d\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But this evening, the curiosity crushing,
I stand before my own.
What I see is not, cannot be me.
Nearly catatonic, I heard the second secret never told
now buzzing in my ear\u2014
\u201cMirrors don\u2019t lie.\u201d \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Locket<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

Joseph Roque <\/em><\/strong>is a poet who frequently writes about life, love, loneliness, growing older, alienation, and the joys of youth. His poems have appeared in Psychopoetica, Mad Swirl, Aphelion, Death Head Grin, The Poet\u2019s Haven, RagMag, <\/em>and Cerebration.<\/em> His latest book is Ashes And Excuses.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Poem by Joseph Roque<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry"],"yoast_head":"\nMirrors Don't Lie | Faith Hope & Fiction<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/faithhopeandfiction.com\/content\/mirrors-dont-lie\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mirrors Don't Lie | Faith Hope & Fiction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A 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