poems inspired by folklore

Mirrorball

Something always brings me back to

Dancing in the living room, all alone and happy

Something always whispers to my ear that
I'm no more but a spectacle, a parlor show and, sadly,

Something in me always holds the cymbals in between my palms

Waiting to be wound up, playing tunes to

Deaf and active ears

I guess it's the magician in me to put up all these mirrors,

Reflecting personalities then absorbing it within me

I'll pull out of my mouth a hundred different colored cloths

And write to you in poetry and metaphor and simile

Before I'll actually tell you how I feel about you

A masquerading reveler, putting glitter on my mask for

Blind and active eyes

Trapeze my way into a glass ceiling, unwilling to break it,

My disco ball lights illuminate the room around you

I put the flaming sword inside my mouth and wait for the applause

Because I thought the cheers and praises were all I would amount to

And when I walked home unnoticed, with no fire in my footstep

I lived in paranoia, thinking I was disappointing these

Dead and active limbs

I never did it for myself; the show was always for you, viewers

But if they can burn down discos in Quezon city and call them haunted

Then my spirit roams around all I haven't pleased with my performance

Then my spirit lives within a boy who desperately wanted to be wanted

But no matter how many hours I take putting the stage make up on me

Something always brings me back to dancing in the living room,

Alone and happy, with no one but myself to satisfy

Oh, these blind and active eyes

Read more poems like this in my poetry collection "If I Can See You When I Pass Away." You can order it via https://aidanbernales.carrd.co or through my social media accounts: aidanreuel on IG and Facebook.