mirrors were the original soul stealers

by Nate Graveen
Illustrations by Katie Craver

alt text:
the person in this mirror does not
recognize themself. this mirror is magical; to try to
nail down its exact place and exact
time in that place is destructive to myself to make an

attempt. do not attempt to pick
up the broken fragments left in its place as this is
futile. pursuits to achieve this are
not the path i should be going down to help

this person recognize them
self. i do not know what the correct way
to go about this is please do
not ask questions too intricate to answer.

i do know these shards / will coalesce to become / a mirror at their own / volition however if / i look away it will / put itself together / looking at it does / not necessarily break / this magical mirror but / this mirror does happen / to move upon my / attempt to make / a connection to it / please know i am not / engaging with psuedo-science / this is the purest form / of science available / and this mirror is just one part / of a puzzle / the moments that i am capable / of peering into / the magical mirror ensures / moments i am not / seeing myself / i should be seeing / myself. i am / instead witnessing myself / witness myself and i am / not sure where i begin / and i am not sure where / i end as i do not / even know where i am / at this point this point / feels like a point / i could grasp onto / but grasping onto / this will cause me / to lose grasp of / fundamental / ideas key to myself / and to do so would / lose the throughline / i have begun to capture.