Mirror

I

I look in the mirror. Standing in my room.
Dirty mirror. Dust. Smudges. Filth.
Look in the mirror. Looking back, through the smeared dust, a face. A man. My face.
Me.
I stand here, looking through the mirror, looking back at myself.
Look at myself watch me watch myself.
Infinity.
Who's the real one? Who can say?
I reach for the mirror. Wipe the dust. Smear it more. More fingerprints on the glass.
Too hard to tell who moved first. Did I reach for the mirror? Did the man in the mirror reach first?
Neither of us did.
I am him. He is me.
Us.
When he moves, I move. When I move, he moves.
Doesn't matter who wants to move first.
We both do it anyway.
I look in the mirror. Standing in my room.
Dirty mirror.
Dust.
Smudges.
Filth.
Step closer. Look past the mirror. Past the glass. Look at the man. Look at myself.
Step closer. Our breath fogs both sides of the glass. Neither of us know whose fogs it first.
The mirror is a window.
Look into the window. The man in the window stands alone.
Empty room. Dirty room. Dirty window.
When I look away, what happens to his room? What happens to him? Does he disappear?
What if he looks away? Do I disappear?
Look out from the mirror. Trapped in the mirror world.
Look out at the mirror world.
When I look away, he looks away. Nothing else happens.
The mirror is a window. Nothing more. Without the mirror, I still exist.
Without the mirror, he still exists.
We exist.
Look in the mirror.
Look past the mirror.
I study the man. My reflection.
What makes a man? What makes up anything?
Cells.
Atoms.
What are they?
Look in the mirror.
Look in the man.
A reflection of a reflection of a reflection of a reflection.
Made of atoms.
I look closer.
Look at the atoms.

II

Trillions. More than I can count.
They make up everything.
These little people. Holding each other. Clinging.
Doing nothing else. Just holding on.
People making up cells making up people.
The people see me.
They watch me. I watch them.
Watching my reflection, I try to touch one.
I can't. I'm too big. They're too small.
I'm looking in the mirror. Standing on people.
I am their universe.
The people don't live on me.
They are me. I am nothing.
Am I an atom? Is my planet a cell?
People making up cells making up people making up cells making up people.
The universe, my universe, makes another person.
I am a universe. An atom.
The little people.
My atoms. Atoms of an atom.
What are they? Universes too?
Atoms are universe. Universes are atoms.
Infinity.

III

Falling.
Falling into infinity.
No. Falling against the mirror.
Lost my balance. Fell forward.
I look in the mirror. Standing in my room.
Eye-to-eye with my reflection. With myself.
Looking in his eyes.
His pupils.
The black.
Beyond it, nothing. A dark void.
Falling again. Into the eyes.
Into the blackness, I fall.

IV

I am a small gorilla.
A featherless chicken.
Fish without gills.
I am made of little people. Little atoms.
Everything is made of them. Everything is the same.
Turkeys are chickens are monkeys are people.
In the dark, I look at a bird. I am a bird.
Look at a cat. I am a dog.
A fish.
The cat is a plant.
A tree.
I am everything.
I am a universe.
I am nothing. My atoms are everything.
What makes intelligence? Am I thinking?
Do my atoms think?
My thoughts are their thoughts. I am them.
I am their reflection.
I am my reflection.
Looking at myself.
The darkness fades away.
I look in the mirror.

V

Standing in my room.
Dirty room. Dirty mirror.
Alone.
No. Not alone. With my reflection. With my atoms.
My reflection. A universe in a universe, reflected to another universe.
The man stares at me. I stare at him.
He blinks. I blink.
I blink. He blinks.
We lean forward.
Touch the glass.
I put my hand against the glass.
I look in the mirror. Standing in my room.
Both of us, forever in different rooms.
Forever in different worlds.
Forever separated by this glass.
Standing in my room.
I look in the mirror.
Reach back.
Look at the man.
Look at the universe.
Look at my universe.
Separated by glass.
I hit the mirror.
The glass falls.
The man falls.
I disappear.