image by Alexas Fotos on pixabay
Look at her, how old…
Those lines around her eyes…
The drooping lids…
The softening of cheeks
not yet grown to jowls…
Those lines that cut into her upper lip…
A mouth too often pursed…
The neck…
No, that neck is fresh and smooth… as yet.
It’s just the face. My face.
A ghost of the future reflected back at me
From the looking-glass.
Written for Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt: Looking-glass in 64 words
crispina kemp 
Mirrors are the one friend of youth that refuses to age gracefully. Love what you’ve done with the god awful experience of looking into one here. Love the photo choice too.
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Ah, that photo. I saw it. I had to have it.
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Lucky to get to this age, being alive and all that!
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I celebrate that with every birthday. But I still don’t like the physical evidence
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I call them the signs of wisdom! 😂
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I think mine are due to squinting!
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And the sun! 😃
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In Norfolk? Nah. The wind 🙂
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👍♥️
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You might guess that as a woman who’s just celebrated her 50 the birthday, I’d agree with you on this one! It almost feels unfair sometimes how quickly time passes, how different we feel inside to what we see in the mirror and how others perceive us. We told, Crispina
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I can give you a few years. I remember my 50th. Clubbing with a bunch of students, trance-dancing. Oh, the energy I had in those days. Before CFS hit.
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Ha! Did not spend my fiftieth like that – you had more energy than I do. My other half has fibromyalgia, so I do feel for you
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Yet I came through it. But those years are now missing… except I did most of my writing during those years. I wasn’t able to face the stress of publishing… but now I can.
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I can see that. There are days the other half can’t face anything much. So glad you’re now strong enough for the challenge. It’s really exciting
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Thank you. And I feel for your other half. It’s not a good place to be.
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There’s very little help available through the NHS – or at least you really have to fight to get it and they don’t give it willingly. It’s not good
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Yea. When I was first diagnosed with CFS, of which high anxiety states is typical, the doctor wanted to prescribe antidepressants. Oh yay, we’ve since discovered almost all prescribed medicated, and a fair-few over the counter painkillers actually make CFS worse.
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Same with the other half – antidepressants are an easy option for an NHS that’s had so many services cut
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Just write a presecription.
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Sadly, yes
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This is amazing, Crispina! Though I can relate with how cruel mirror can be but not fully with the effects of aging, I personally find people looking more and more beautiful with age. As if the years of wisdom and experience has set itself aglow into the ridges between the wrinkles and has added another layer of attraction to the person as a whole. But that’s just me! :p
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I thank you. And yes, you’re right, the signs of aging are also the signs of gathering wisdom. But do they have to be so deeply graved? 🙂 🙂 🙂
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😄 hmm… A valid point! 🙂❤️
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🙂
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I cannot help but think of my grandmother. We were sitting at her table and she was talking about how when she looked in the mirror she was discouraged to see the old woman looking back as she was misrepresenting how she felt inside. I guess it’s hard not to feel that way.
Wonderful write, Crisp!
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Thanks, Dale. I’ve become highly critical of that reflected me (my daughter says that’s not really how I look, cos it’s all reversed); it’s also mostly in a magnifying glass. Lines like canyons, pores like potholes! And the discovery that my brown eyes aren’t brown, but mid-amber.
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I hear you. So very glad there are others around to tell me the same. These mirrors show way too much! Our eyes can lighten as we age, I’ve read… 10-15% of us…
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Oh, so they did used to be dark brown? I wouldn’t know; I never did study them. I know they were never as dark as my fathers, nor my bother’s and sister’s.
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They could have been…😉
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Nah, mine were always the lightest in the family… just not as light as my mother’s, which were green.
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🙂 Mine are dark brown, my youngest sister has what I lovingly tell her are diarrhea brownish-green… 😉
The middle sister and mother are also dark brown. My dad’s were an icy blue…
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The dna of pigmented eyes! 🙂
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👀
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Hey, where’d you find them 🙂 No, don’t tell me. On your phone, or tablet. Thay’renot on my laptop! Boo-hoo
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Cool, eh? Nope… Right here (I have it in my favaourites on my laptop! ) https://emojikeyboard.top/
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I think you’ve given me the link to this before. I’m just too lazy. A couple of keyboard keys… might be boring, but it’s easy.
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I believe I have. And I hear you. When I feel energetic, I go get the link…
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Not so energetic 😴
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But I’ll try 👀 👀🤭
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There ya go, you wild thing!
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But only on un-rushed days like today 👩🦰
Takes too long to find what I want. And knowing me, I’ll send the wrong unspoken message.
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Haha… There is a little box where you can type in what you want 😉
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Oh. And that’s fine if you know what you want.
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There is that…
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Ah-ha 🙂
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Makes old age sound in chanting.
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Hmmm…. perhaps 🙂
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I thought you are describing me. It fits except the neck, it’s the giveaway also. Keep that neck smooth, dear. Beautifully written and matched up picture.
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No, I’d just looked at myself. But yea, the neck is still smooth. 🙂 And that photo was such a good find. 🙂
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She’s so self-conscious! Hopefully she’ll start to feel better about herself soon.
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I’m sure she will. 🙂
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