By Cathy Millangue (age 18)
from Fort Zumwalt West High School
The mirror shone brightly before,
reflecting the gentle rays of dawn,
golden streaks illuminating the room.
Its gilded frame was clean,
untouched by the fingers of decay.
The surface was smooth,
a calm lake resting upon the wall,
and in it,
the bright, smiling face of its beholder smiled back.
But that was before the stones were thrown,
rough and smooth hands joined
to break
to hurt
to harm
until the mirror lay shattered,
the shards too jagged to pick up,
too complicated to piece back together,
forever scattered, forever unwhole,
forever reflecting the ugly image of its beholder.
The beholder can try to rearrange the pieces,
cover their hands in crimson cuts,
and drown themselves in swallowed tears,
but the mirror will still lies broken.
And when time coats the pieces in dust,
further blurring the reflection
into an unrecognizable form,
the beholder can only see
the rigid scars
that time’s neglect can bring.
But who could truly blame time?
Time did not call together
the hands that carried the stones,
nor did it command the hands to raise and let them loose.
Time did not tell the beholder,
with words slathered in honey,
that the mirror is unfractured.
Whole.
Time did not indoctrinate generations,
insist that they were made of dirt and darkness disgusting beasts,
undeserving of anything more than shattered glass—
of a warped mirror
broken by stones, thrown by hands, rough and smooth, joined together.
TeenQuill Poet Cathy Millangue (she/her) is a Filipino-American student at Fort Zumwalt West High School in Missouri. She enjoys history, playing the violin in orchestra, and literature, drawing inspiration from diverse authors like Justina Ireland and Aiden Thomas. Active in Cultures in Action, Scholar Bowl, and NHS, she also loves writing, drawing, fantasy, and video games. Passionate about sustainability and science, she hopes to become a green architect or geneticist. Cathy dreams of writing a book, traveling beyond the U.S., and learning a new language, all while continuing to explore her many creative and academic interests.
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