Halloween Reflection

You were an old flame guttering,
sputtering with the lie of life.
Closer to extinction you lived,
armchair convictions condensed to
badge the sleeve of your hair shirt.

You imagined me a mirror
fit for moulding to your image.
But I proved more enigmatic
than Leonardo's lady, my length
cramping, hampered by your frame.

What saw you last when the rattle
stuck fast, final, in your black craw
and then fluttered from your mute mouth?
A gilded moth trapped, flickering
in swirling wake of summer skirt.

^

Biography

Barbara Smith was born in Dublin and currently lives in Drogheda, Co. Louth. She has published in Riposte, west47online and VirtualWriter in Ireland, as well as in nthposition.com (UK), Garm Lu (Canada), Borderlands, Texan Poetry Review and Portrait (US). Publications include Poetic Stage (1998) and Gnosis (1996).