A Brief Extrapolation

A chance meeting in the night.

Mirror, mirror, on the wall, tell me who’s perfect of all
And show me all their worried ways - please bring them to their knees.

Oh! I didn’t hear you come. Welcome - Welcome, welcome son! I didn’t think it’d be so fun to bring you to my knees.
Stay a while, do drag a chair, brush away that tattered hair, perhaps I shouldn’t even care, or set out to appease.

Appease of what? Appease your mind? Appease myself to writing lines - upon a board that isn’t there, or even hanging in the air!

…Silence?

Perhaps my mind does linger so, floating in a vat of woe, and though I know it isn’t so, let’s speak by candlelight.

But in the brightness of our time, perhaps there is no sun to shine, and if that is a case of mine, just set it at my door. Brandy? No, of course. These floorboards warp with every breeze. Throw off your coat - feel free to freeze. Come, Let’s walk along the dark and corridors of a soul.

Can you feel it? Can you hear it? Perhaps you should compromise and beat it. Perhaps I should demand reprise and feed it. What? Why’d you stop. I urge you not to tarry long, all manner will soon be gone, and even though you fear the view, you won’t forever - you’ll become it too.

And if the view is all you are, perhaps you’re not perfect at all, so if I know that this is true, then out! OUT! Away with you! Do not come back, just take your coat! Don’t even stir, I’ll tear your throat. Don’t end this on a solemn note.

Perfect? Filthy cur! I wish, I wish, I wish you were.

Goodnight, and good riddance.

Author's Note

I thought it would be interesting to depict a conversation, without ever bringing light to the other character. Perhaps there is another character, perhaps not. Perhaps something else entirely. It is up to the reader to decide that for themselves.

Please enjoy!

Reviews

[Luisa]

I do like your one-sided conversation style here. It's very sort of mental, internal feeling, and I like the use of rhythm and rhyme and all that stuff that I always like. The character in this one is vivid too. You are amazingly gifted at creating a fully-developed, distinct, and even complex character from a very brief poem – and without resorting to describing the person in question. That's one of my favorite things about your more character-focused poems (like that one about murdering someone, that character was developed even before it was clear that he was speaking).