A Turn of Luck - Dec 30 2023

 

A Turn of Luck

Dec 30 2023

My reflection

in the dirty glass

was only vaguely me;

as if a tracing

in soft lead pencil

had been accidentally smudged.

There was a crack in the window,

roughly sealed

with a strip of packing tape

that had not aged well,

the clear plastic

yellowing badly

and lifting at the edges.

So my face was oddly split;

a Picasso painting

of a faded man

at war with himself.

The rest of the windows were boarded up.

The broken sidewalk

was mined with garbage

discarded bottles

needles pricked with blood,

a pile of human feces

steamed in the corner

of a set-back entranceway.

I hustled past

with only a quick glance

at my murky reflection.

I'm not superstitious,

but they say a broken mirror

is 7 years bad luck

so why take a chance?

Even though a window

intended to let in the light

rather than reflect it

surely doesn’t count.

Anyway, there was plenty of bad luck

wherever I looked

in that benighted neighbourhood.

Where, but for the grace of God

whim of fate

hitch in time,

you could see a version of yourself.

Had here and there

a turn of luck

not gone your way,

a single bad decision

changed it all.