Mirror Without Me

(Intro — faint hum, guitar feedback swelling like tinnitus)

I keep checking the glass

like it owes me an answer.

⸻

(Verse 1)

Bathroom light flickers like it’s tired of me

Face in the mirror don’t line up clean

Mouth moves late when I try to speak

Like someone else is using my teeth

I trace the scar on my cheekbone ridge

Don’t remember where I got that from, kid

Was I smiling? Was I alone?

Was I already halfway gone?

⸻

(Chorus)

There’s a mirror without me

Hanging where I used to stand

It knows your name but not my hands

Knows your voice but not my past

There’s a mirror without me

Shows a life I can’t place

If I ever had a face

It’s buried in your shape

⸻

(Verse 2)

I found old photos in a paper sack

Every smile looks counterfeit, flat

I’m in the frame but I feel erased

Like I wandered in from someone else’s wake

Did I love you or rehearse the scene?

Did I bleed or just repeat the dream?

If I lost you, what did I lose?

If I never had you, what’s this bruise?

⸻

(Outro — guitar ringing out, almost whispered)

I don’t miss you.

I miss whoever I was

when I thought you were real.