Prompt: self-portrait

I limp through my day

cane in hand (metaphor

made real.) Each step

a challenge. Brief

respites. Ice. Heat.

I try to see through

the back of the mirror.

The surface slightly

crackled, silvered,

stained. Wounded.

The image wavers.

I know my eye turns it

upside down. I know

the mirror flips it

left to right, right

to left. It’s been years

since I’ve seen my face

without spectacles. Naked.

Is this still me? Glassy,

reversed, upside-down?