The Mirror of You is Waiting

This comics poem is a response to today’s NaPoWriMo prompt:

Because today marks the halfway point in our 30-day sprint, today I’d like to challenge you to write a poem that incorporates the idea of doubles. You could incorporate doubling into the form, for example, by writing a poem in couplets. Or you could make doubles the theme of the poem, by writing, for example, about mirrors or twins, or simply things that come in pairs. Or you could double your doublings by incorporating things-that-come-in-twos into both your subject and form.

Double Date

When you avert my gaze

it seems as though you are shy,

as though I’m some beautiful girl

who wouldn’t want to know you.

Perhaps you are

star gazing,

divining futures from the clouds,

the tops of trees,

cranes, kites.

We drink our coffee

and still

you do not look me in the eye. 

Instead you gaze at the space around my head

as if I exist there beside myself,

another me 

to whom you can address your comments, 

another me 

who will hear you better,

will answer you in some enigmatic way.

I grow jealous of her,

knowing that to look into

the dark of her eye

is to be stripped bare

and once seen like that

you can never be clothed again

no matter how many brightly coloured shirts you try.