In the Silence of My Mirror

by Sy Roth

 

In the silence of my mirror

I watched her for three lights—

 

While her lips became animated yawps

Dancing along with her twirling hands--

First one, then the other

A surly communicative dance

where impatience

reigns a rain of words.

 

Lips form into dangerous Ohs!

Hands karate chop at the vacant mist

That lies between them.

Ethereal, non-corporeal bantering

Fall in to tragic nano-seconds of silence

Momentary voids across an empty canyon.

 

A Bluetooth avalanche of words--

She stiffens and the traffic crawls  around her.

The first light,

Yellow hazed,

Her speech twists into pretzels of anguish;

The second, red-mashed gesticulations

Punctuated by sneerings

Volumes until

Green.

 

She accelerates suddenly

Tears the connection and

stares sadly into the wind of her mind

Sterile words,

chattering nabobs of confusion.

 

I sped off away from her

Before the next call.

The next red light

Strips the ether

By its presence.