Each of them felt alone
but maybe it wasn’t true.
Each felt the others were against them
but maybe it wasn’t true.
Each one felt caught up in a seesaw
where others put them down
out of a need to be the upper one
but maybe it wasn’t true.
Maybe the conflict
really was a screen between them,
distortions in the filters,
which none of them owned.
Maybe if they felt betrayed,
or framed, or misconstrued
it wasn’t others, but a general fear
that fogged their view.
And maybe any one of them could pause,
Just stop.
Breathe.
Wait.
Long enough to let the dust fall away.
And keep on watching till they glimpsed
the other as a mirror,
shining, multiplying back their light.
It might astonish everyone
and maybe it’s true.
©Wendy Mulhern
November 18, 2013