The Mirror

By Layth Al-Nadi

Every time you look at your reflection, you make eye contact with yourself. It's one of those things that you manage to forget about until its brought up again.  It's more than the platitude of a "window to your soul". The act of locking your eyes in a gaze with themselves forms an understanding that you've come to terms with who you were and who you are while simultaneously seeing nothing. Nothing good should come of nothing, but it does. That's the paradox. 

That's when you become obsessed with finding a cleaner, more fulfilling way to reach this same understanding. You'll fight to get it and you'll not have it unless you deserve it. You end up running in circles, dodging the same bullets, failing to learn from your mistakes. You start to build a conviction for the understanding you once saw in your eyes. You look at your reflection again and see a different set of eyes, a pair that is tired and withering, but you're convinced they're the same.

Any sanity you could gain is quickly squashed by the overwhelming resistance.  Rebellion does nothing but add to your conviction and sloppy sense of precision. You start thinking that this understanding is beyond yourself. It is now public domain and should be exploited by the masses.  You quickly realize that you've become dead weight for your own ideas. However, nothing can keep them alive outside your head. The world won't accept them. You find that you can't give up either, so you continue running and dodging and failing because you know nothing else anymore. You linger around like a plague. It is in this paradox that you will meet your end.