Looking in the Mirror. (New Ending)

I do not recognize the face in this photograph.
The person I was last summer is not the person I now am,
Or wish to be, this bright mid winter morning.
Threads of cloud drift high above the skylight.

Compared to this likeness snapped in August
My reflection in the mirror is slightly skewed,
Misshapen by flawed glass, by shards of sunlight filtered
Through frosted bathroom windows.
A fog of condensation streaks the walls.

Cruel winter and the air seems thick with dreams.
Each day when I blink back at ageing features
Through tired eyes, through smears of bathroom soap,
They seem a little different than I remember,
A little less substantial, a little less my own.

Maybe winter is a time for transformations
When we shed the skins of all our yesterdays,
Discard the ghosts that haunt our family albums,
The frauds that clog our phones.
We cut the links to who we used to be.

This reflection in the glass is just a mirage,
A mime artiste peering through his mask
With urgent eyes, but spying nothing true.
A  wistful smile curves his painted lips
Into a silent question.

I look up through the skylight at the clouds,
Tangled strands that quickly break apart.


Trevor John Karsavin Potter.
January 16th. - February 11th. - 12th. 2018.

Trevor J Potter's Art: 3 Seasons 3 Poems.- Faded Snapshots of Kyoto - So...

Trevor J Potter's Art: 3 Seasons 3 Poems.- Faded Snapshots of Kyoto - So...:             1 Faded Snapshots of Kyoto.  Below us The city seethes in heat Here Within the temple garden Even the sound of water...

Trevor J Potter's Art: First Meeting.

Trevor J Potter's Art: First Meeting.: Stunned by the sweetness of your smile My so obsessive rushing to and fro Has instantly become irrelevant. We are standing still, apart,...

Coppelia. (Un Revised Original Version)

Walking at last
A child again
Learning how to stiffly move
From A to B
From chair to table
From bed to door

Walking at last
On wooden legs
On rubber ankles
In shoes of lead
The floor unstable
The walls dissolving

Walking at last
Nothing to hold to
Except a memory
Of times now lost
The door keeps banging
Into your face

Six months stone still
Locked in a coma
Eyes clamped tight
Neck in a cast
Have sapped strong muscle
Curtailed most movement
Stunted the mind -
Sporadic fits and violent seizures
Have broken down your wistful dance

Walking at last
You struggle towards me
Across the Ward
Wide as the world
Frail arms outstretched
A high wire dreamer
Resisting assistance
Fighting the air
A smile in your eyes

I must promise myself not to mention the tears
I cried every night last summer


Trevor John Karsavin Potter.
January 7th. - 8th. - 9th. 2018.

For Ivy, six months in a coma, now returned home.
She is struggling to walk and talks with her eyes.

Trevor J Potter's Art: January Moon, Stormy Night. (Revised)

Trevor J Potter's Art: January Moon, Stormy Night. (Revised): On this windy night The moon, a ghost ship Tossed among clouds. Love Without you                        I am nothing, A counterfeit...

January Moon, Stormy Night.

On this windy night
The moon, a ghost ship
Tossed among clouds.


Love
Without you
                       I am nothing,
A counterfeit persona
Frailer than memory.


The moon, a pale mirror
That reflects your face
Onto my pillow

Shining your mischievous features
As though through a cine projector,


A mirror of tears
Reflecting our lost history,
Our solitudes,
Through miniature rainbows.


Love
When the night sky is pure black
I can sleep soundly
Safe in the sanctum of darkness,


Safe from your laughing eyes
While old age slowly takes me
From the path that we once travelled.


The path I cannot now tread
Except in private dream time,
Memory filtered through shadows;


Our long ago kiss by the lakeside
That moonlit Maundy Thursday
Transfigured into myth.
I, forever lonely. You, forever young.

Love
Without you
                      I am nothing.


Trevor John Karsavin Potter.
January 2nd. - 3rd. - 4th. 2018.
July 24th. 2018.

Trevor J Potter's Art: (1) A Dream of Deep Midwinter. (Revised) (2) Note...

Trevor J Potter's Art: (1) A Dream of Deep Midwinter. (Revised) (2) Note...: Butter coloured moon, Midnight December, A single light in the coldest of skies Shining above the Christmas rooftops, The bare boned tr...