I know this face

So well

Each line is personal

Known to me

I created it

And placed it

Made it with every choice

And every step on the journey

I know this voice

The tones and the moods

It is my own

Even in weakness

When no more

Than a whisper emerges

But all shifts

Grows strange

A mirror refracting

Fun house images

Until what was recognizable

Is foreign

So it is

With every other

Who sees us

And perceives us

Speaking their words

Over our identity

Seeing myself

Through those other eyes

A stranger

Features rearranged

Distant from all I am

The surreal

Within the real life I live

Placed upon me like a mantle

Unwanted, weighty

But resting over my shoulders

No matter how often

I shrug ~ Caroline A. Slee