Teacher

I see her in the mirror
and cannot tell us apart.
She sees me looking back at her
and wonders where she went.
Since the start of our lives
we have reflected
each other’s learned defenses,
and lightning reactivities*.

Back and forth and back and forth
the reflections bounce and blind us.
Bobbing light everywhere,
but no clear seeing.
We ricochet under the strobe,
our old bodies exhausted.
There must be a way
to relation as separate selves.

Before one of us
leaves the Earth
and the story stays broken,
is there a way?
From a time above this time,
I peer, but cannot see our soulpaths,
or how many lifetimes
we need for resolution.

In this one, each of us
has done what we could.
No more blame, only sorrow
that it could not come to pass.
I turn the pain of estrangement
over to the Quantum Mother.
She tells my heart I must yet carry
this deepest grief I’ve known.

©Susa Silvermarie 2026

• the extent to which a (nuclear) reactor deviates from a steady state.