"Reflection"

Every day he looks in the mirror and sees his reflection
He makes his skin softer, his eyebrows neater, his lashes fuller...
He ensures each hair is meticulously in place

Yes, every day he looks in the mirror and sees his reflection.

But today he confronts the mirror with candid eyes.  He surveys his face.
When was the last time he really looked at it?

The eyebrows are shaped the same, the lip lines haven’t faded, the chin is a bit slimmer than he thinks of it.

Then he notices the eyes.  Something is different about them.  They’re the same shape.  They’re the same shade of green.  They haven’t become any more aged or lined.  Yet they’re completely different.

What have they seen?  What do they want him to know?  The light that was once in them seems to be flickering.  These eyes have stayed bright and strong through many a battle but now they seem dark and hollow and hopeless.

They don’t want to be that way.  Something is shielding them, holding them back.  But they look at him with desperation as if to say “Please help me”.  He stares into them thoughtfully and notices for the first time that though the face may be the same, the person it belongs to is lost.  He’s nowhere to be found and the eyes want him to come home.

He looks into his own eyes.
They look back at him.
He wants to help them and they need his help.
They’re asking for it.

But he doesn’t know how to reunite the eyes with their person.  Where on Earth would he begin to look?  He makes a silent promise to the faded green reflection.  He’ll try.  He’ll do everything he can to bring the boy they belong to back home.  He misses him just as much.

Every day he looks in the mirror and sees....a reflection.