Shadows | Mahima Kapoor

I have looked at my reflection in the mirror
For all my life, and let me tell you, reflections 
Are no companions to me, they are not real enough 
To be companions, and mirrors are no friendly objects, 
Because every image it forms of me, somewhere behind 
It, is in a dimension where I cannot reach, no matter 
How hard I try, in fact every wall that my shadows 
Appear on by far surpass every mirror that seems to 
Have locked a part of me somewhere inside it, and 
All I feel when I look into a mirror is the typical sad 
Despair filling me up to the brim with dejection and 
Disappointment, but every shadow that my body forces 
On a wall by blocking the harsh light that seems to be 
Following me, fills me with nothing but an overwhelming 
Sense of my loneliness lifting off of me like a layer of mist, 
And that’s the thing about these cocooning shadows, 
They are the most defined when it’s hard light that hits 
The surface they form on, and instead of hurting my eyes, 
By casting the deeply accentuated shadow in front of me, 
It gives me something real, something multi-dimensional 
Just like I am, occupying as much space as I do, 
Not always visible except for in its two-dimensional
Silhouette form, but the realization that it is real, 
That it can reveal its presence in the fog that clouds 
The rest of the world, gives me more comfort that any 
Reflection could ever give to me, and every softened plane 
Of my body, every clear cut edge and crevice – that are 
Contained in me – the shadow shows me makes me 
Love my real self just a little more, because my shadow 
Never lies, never betrays, never fills me with anything 
But a profound sense of contentment that spreads 
Through my veins like wildfire, because it’s real, 
Only when I am, and it may hide in its entirety from me, 
But it’s there, there, there, to ground me when nothing 
Else capable of grounding me is visible to me

Indian Review | Literature, Poetry and Art Magazine | Author | Mahima Kapoor writes for Indian Review. Read and share the joy of literature

Mahima Kapoor is a student of English Literature from India, a self-professed poet with a forth-coming publication in Mulberry Forks Review. She is socially awkward, an avid reader, and a player of words, and thinks that that’s a wonderful amalgamation to be found in a human