{"id":12523,"date":"2020-01-20T10:00:43","date_gmt":"2020-01-20T15:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/?p=12523"},"modified":"2020-02-06T21:50:34","modified_gmt":"2020-02-07T02:50:34","slug":"the-mirror-that-he-holds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/2020\/01\/20\/the-mirror-that-he-holds\/","title":{"rendered":"The Mirror That He Holds"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"what does it mean to have someone hold up to the mirror to you?<\/p>\n

who is that person I see, staring back at me?<\/p>\n

he holds the hand mirror to me, Sarah see this is you<\/p>\n

I look again, mirror in hand it is<\/p>\n

me, the mirror breaks sometimes so I glue the shards together<\/p>\n

somebody know me too well<\/em><\/p>\n

the reflection has scars so I wait a few weeks until I see no more traces<\/p>\n

shades of gray everywhere, do I like what I see?<\/p>\n

my biases, anxieties manifested<\/p>\n

witty remarks and flushed cheeks<\/p>\n

of bruised knees and accidental brushing off<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

my mirror, typically rose-tinted<\/p>\n

not anymore, perhaps this is what having another person<\/p>\n

is for? I am vulnerable<\/p>\n

but safe to repair under forgiving,\u00a0loving\u00a0gaze<\/p>\n

someone to force me to care\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

things my parents say but I do not listen<\/p>\n

are the same things he tells me<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I look back in the mirror okay<\/p>\n

this is me, this is Sarah<\/p>\n

and I am okay. I am enough.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

Relevant song: Being Alive by Stephen Sondheim<\/p>\n

Someone to crowd you with love<\/em>
\nSomeone to force you to care<\/em>
\nSomeone to make you come through<\/em>
\nWho’ll always be there, as frightened as you<\/em>
\nOf being alive<\/em>
\nBeing alive, being alive, being alive.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

(Image taken using Pentax K1000, Kodak Colorplus 200)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

what does it mean to have someone hold up to the mirror to you? who is that person I see, staring back at me? he holds the hand mirror to me, Sarah see this is you I look again, mirror in hand it is me, the mirror breaks sometimes so I glue the shards together […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2195,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12523"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2195"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12523"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12756,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12523\/revisions\/12756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}