I Am Santo

Fiction, poetry, music and mindscape pictures by creative artist Jason Santo

Mirror mirror, asked on that wall. For you are the fairest of them all. Can you not see? This fairy tale holds no place for others. This happily ever after is yours and no one else’s. Princes may come and go, but your beauty and this divine reflection will stay forever, assuring you of the truth: there cannot be another as lovely in this world, or in any other, real or imagined. Set your teeth upon the apple and taste wicked futures where dreams of lust crowd like crippled forests at night, like the notions of forgiveness swimming in the fright of others who cannot claim as you do the throne of unapproachable affection. For you are the dream. You are the fruit. You are the pure descendant of Eden, at home in children’s stories; alive only in fictions where snakes speak sweetly of temptation and crones with knobby knuckles eliminate their competition. And who are you? Siren or klaxon? Savior or warning? The shrill cry of beauty is a hung note in the gallows of melodic reflection. Try, try, try, sweet girl, and look forward to that day when the looking glass cannot tell you anything you don’t already know: that it’s there already, in the heart, that truth. That undeniable return from the sea of cast off jealousies that ran fathoms deep, but surfaced like whale breath, like a stolen rib, like a queen’s ire when someone else dared alabaster’s sheen to a contest. Oh you always win. The perfect always get what they want. Too bad greed disallows desire, a book starved of revelation; a tale without an antidote kiss.

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The truest of writing prompts, the enigmatic @alice.artc blessed me with this shot and a “mirror mirror” reference which resulted in the edit you see and the words you may have had the patience to read. Thank you, dear Alice, as always, for being such a tremendous muse.

#poem #poetry #poetic #igwriters #instawriter #writersofig #poetsofig #igpoets #igpoems #mobileartistry #creativewriting #fiction #flashfiction #writing #writer #story #shortstory #microfiction #poetrycommunity #igwriters #iamwriting #collaboration #muse #lovely #beauty #doeyes #beautifulwoman #portrait #mirror #reflection (at Mirror Mirror)

She’s gone. For every mistake, each lash of reflected disdain’s whip and tear shed at silent admonishment for all of it, there was now a shard. The biggest pieces of herself still shown back: the need for his grip on her hips, the yearning for importance in all of their lives, the desire to walk straighter lines or at least not diverge so wildly that her course threatens. But smaller selves now found new light in their angle away from her. Those surface flaws and constant brow beats over looks, money, rights and wrongs. She now caught the sun in new ways and turned that imperious judgement toward the cracks in logic surrounding her, not within. No one is dealt a clean hand. There are cards to trade, suits to match and faith found in numbers. There was love outside that looking glass, surrounding her, and it was time the break was made; time she saw what they did. Old lives weren’t worth salvation unless a wounded core healed. And regardless of the scars, she would wear her soul as bared skin. She stepped naked over the shattered remnants of her past and the glass tried to pronounce one last sentence on her as she left; catching those hurts in frail light. And as the sting of their needle hate drew blood from her feet, she smiled because she would leave drying tracks of herself behind as if she’d leached her contempt from within, leaving it for any who’d held her back; especially the frail girl locked in the mirror. She’s gone. She’ll live on.

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Original photo by @michelleko who had such a compelling, wonderful vision that she shares each day on IG. I did a small but if editing and wrote the story, but owe Michelle the credit as she sent me this in response to my tipsy plea for writing prompts last night. I love IG for the friendships it has produced and Michelle’s support for whatever it is I am doing here has been huge to me. Thank you as always, my friend.

#poem #poetry #writing #writer #poetic #poetry_addicts #literary_imagery1 #creativewriting #broken #mirror #shards #glass #sharp #reflection #cracked #shattered

(at The Leaving)