The face pressed impossibly closer,
watching the breath’s condensation falling and fading,
falling and fading,
slowly against the glass

It was the face of a child, she recognized,
but the eyes – haunted, hollow, despairing –
the eyes were ancient

Eyelids fluttered closed for a scant second,
as if in a silent prayer
(But she had never believed in God)
and the merciless gaze caught hers,
piercing her very core and chilling her to the marrow

The child laughed, a brittle, harsh, hollow sound
It penetrated the air like a knife,
and cut through her already
bleeding heart

The mirror broke beneath her touch,
the reflection shattered,
and glittering shards of glass fell to the ground,
like her memories of the past
(But she didn’t want to remember)

It was the face of a child, she recognized,
but the eyes were ancient
And the child was long ago
dead