I LOOKED IN THE MIRROR AND.....

WORD COUNT: 221

I looked in the mirror and didn't know myself.

My youth had escaped me without permission,
the shoulder-long blond hair that encased my face had long since turned gray.

A sporty pair of bifocals had sometime ago replaced my perfect twenty/twenty vision.

My youthful figure, lost between the birth of my twin daughters, and the constant pull of gravity would probably never return.

Deep stress lines in my forehead told of late night worries of a cops wife, the kids and the bills.

A husband that rarely showed his face in time for dinner; there was always another crook to catch.
He was a stranger that shared my bed, and on occasions would include me into his love making.

Yes, maybe life had turned the wrong corner somewhere along the way, but I was grateful for my children, my health and my home.
All else was a means to exist as best as I knew how.

Don't get me wrong I still love my husband, and I know he cares for me. But, my father had warned me not to marry a cop.
"It wouldn't last" he had said. Well, we're hanging on as live turns its pages. We'll see who has the last laugh.

And, as my blue-green eyes peer back at me,
I know myself.