Do you still practice smiling in the mirror
You never quite got it right
You wrote poems about love, spiderwebs, and your chattering teeth
About the endless horizon in someone's eyes
And the gravitational pull on your heart
You learned you can be replaced while you were staring at your own reflection
With each breath, you hoped the mirror would shatter in front of you
Sounding like a standing ovation to your best effort
Like an epilogue to your act On days like these
We can't make a metaphor about your soul and the fragility of glass
And I'm truly afraid you know how to use a broken mirror
On days like these
The courage to write the poem about the days you never lived
Can only be found in the hug of a friend you never had
We still practice smiling in the mirror
Because this is what we do
We practice
We write poems about death
Our friends
And our chattering teeth
You might say a broken mirror can still reflect
Like a metaphor about the resiliency of our existence
But we can't make metaphors anymore
On days like these
We breathe
We break
And get replaced
There isn't anything left to say Just smile and pick up the pieces