Scars in the Mirror

You look in the mirror,
something you do rarely any more,
too tired to relive the history of each wrinkle and scar,
the marks of battles fought

within your soul, painful reminders
left by those who sought to wrench
life and love from your heart, and those
who treated you even worse,

torturing you blindly,
as if you did not exist,
did not matter, just
part of the flotsam of their whims,

left to hang on the wall by chains
you helped forge.

You look in the mirror.
in wonderment, suddenly realizing
that somehow, the pain is gone.
you are whole, free, rising to the sky

in a languid dance of joy,
unfettered at last, free,
not despite the scars that mark you.
but because of them.

About this poem

Sometimes something happens in our life and we suddenly realize the pain we have been carrying around from events and wounds in our life is gone. The scars are there, but they no longer hurt or seep in pain. We are whole again.

And when that happens? Our scars become beauty marks, something to celebrate, to bear not in shame, but in joy.

The picture was taken at the Metal Museum in Memphis, TN. IT’s called “The Friendship Bridge.”, conceived by Manfred Bredohl and fabricated by Fred Borcherdt and the Arizona Blacksmith’s Association.

Tom