Mirror Rejected Viewer Poem by Danny Draper

Behind the blotchy Arcadian screen
Where trees and shrubs presume
A tenuous hub of uneasy ephemeral wilderness
In a glimpse of refutable verdant harmony,
Rooms of lying down whispers
Concede rooms of frankness
Into the waking rooms of
Hard discussions shedding candid burdens.
Damaged goods rise as cream
Some set free as emotional jetsam,
Others flotsam tethered tenuously by blood.
Core sanity salvaged,
Extricated from outsourced tangles of
Engrained and unfounded grievances
Of genetic and preconceived origin,
Neurotic turmoil and venom flail
Spurned as betrayal to ingratiate, despite contempt,
Consume and exhaust all air from each room.
Martyr, co-dependent with stubborn misery,
Suit of perfection, sanctuary of denial,
Abject misery darkens a fraying fabric
Pain strains to contain unravelling seams,
Martyr, co-dependent with stubborn misery;
Mirror rejected viewer.

Black dog from her shadow, conceals a bone.