Narcissus

She showed herself to him.

She rose … she drifted into the clear

Light of his gaze

From the swampy depths,

From beneath the lily pads and pond weed.

Shining anew with his regard,

She revealed herself.

He began talking,

Telling her his story

And in her listening eyes

He became obsessed, again, with his own reflection.

He didn’t see her,

All he saw was a cool, cultivated, confabulation of himself,

A man made in the eyes of a woman.

When he finished his great construction

And no longer saw his reflection in her eyes

She sank

Beneath the lily pads and pond weed.

He didn’t follow for he had not seen her.

He waited, patient.

He waited for the next siren

To rise out of the depths,

So that he could see his image again.

His poems, songs and text messages

Reflected

In her mirror'd,

listening eyes.