Mirror Mirror

I dreamt I found that famous mirror, peered within, and asked

Strange words that echoed Snow White’s fearsome Queen

But later, all my self-exalting queries were at last

All answered in a different sort of glass

And so, I questioned boldly in my dream:

“Mirror Mirror on the wall

Who’s the fairest ever seen?

Who’s the end-all prototype, the

Face about whom folks will write in dreams?”

“Who’s more lovely than a swan of

White, or Sunset in the West?

Who’s the greatest Paragon of

Light and truth and love and all the rest?”

Vain conceit brought forth this screed

Then I found a humbler mirror

Leatherbound, its leaves relieved this

Victim of a darkness growing drearer

Sage and saint therein reflect

Heights of love; man’s deepest worth

Pages inked with red connect one’s

Eyes to heaven’s Mirror framed of earth

Mirror of the Father’s care

Fairer words were never spoken

Mirror of man’s calling, when He

Gives His very Self in Bread that’s broken

Mirror marched up skullish mount

Fount of healing; cracked and scorned

Mirror tarnished, on a beam

Gleaming love through hatred humbly borne

Mirror shattered; hope betrayed?

Shards of splendor in a tomb

Soon exhumed; the glass remade! The

Grave, thereby transfigured since, to womb

Be meek my soul; look deep inside

That Mirror, see! Reflect His rays!

Direct those lost in dark of pride

Toward the Humble Star Who shines the way

Who moonlights, too, as Path and Door… (1)

To where He’s Sun, those radiant shores of light and song-soaked praise (2)

***

(1) John’s Gospel

(2) Revelation