Removing the Mirrors

They sat together as the forbidding shadows slid
from the corners of the room
and wrapped around her.
She described a patchwork of memories,
connected only by the thread of uncertainty,
her account punctuated by girlish giggles
and feint transparent sighs.

They turned the pages of a family album
to prompt more recent recollections.
But the portraits had no meaning for her.

She demanded her dinner
although her plate lay empty on the table,
wiped clean by her finger only moments before

Swinging her feet like a petulant child,
she gazed at the favourite ruby red leather
slipping from her weary toes.
Then a fugitive smile softened the lines around her mouth.
Are these my shoes?
Where are my shoes?
Where’s my dinner?

Later, the face of a stranger
stared back at her from the mirror
and fear marked the cruelty of her confusion.
So they removed the mirrors
one
by one.
But the days continued to tangle her thoughts
and suffocate her fragile identity.