The Face Of The Father In My Mind's Mirror Poem by Dennis Ryan

October 2003; revised Thursday morning, July 21,2022

Almost without knowing it I came to the point of
searching for the face of the father in the mind's mirror.
When I gazed in, he gazed back with my eyes and visage—
as if I had seen through a mask, through my father's face
back into my own. That was almost fifteen years ago;
now, I am reminded that life's a complicated affair
of good and bad memories, of joys and despairs,
of loves and loves lost, of having and having not,
of caring and caring not, of friends and family and youth,
middle and old age, of loneliness, and finally of bitter,
final truths—letting everything and everyone go.