The Transition

She walked to the edge of the lake and stared endlessly at her own reflection. She made numerous faces, trying to find herself again. She did not recognize any of the faces staring back at her. She had become her own stranger. When did it happen? She wondered. She sat down on the nearest rock and continued to stare at this stranger. The face that was staring back was the face of a failed woman, sad, unhappy with the choices she had made. At first, this woman was demanding, an action taker, then just as sudden, the face changed into a sad pathetic shell of a being, and she pondered how she’d gotten here, did she misuse her life? Was she just like the other million drones in the city? She had it all once, the whole American Dream… then one day, it just vanished. She almost does not remember it happening, just like that-Poof!-it was all gone. She was alone, for the first time in her life and she had no clue of how to start living. She had lived in other’s shadows for so many years she had lost her identity long ago, in between the diapering and the house keeping she knew nothing else. She had become nobody in a sea of lost souls. All those years she had been wasting away, various lovers had come and left gaping wounds in her heart, the many friends she thought she had; long betrayed her, leaving her to waste away slowly, rotting in the dark like the leaves under her feet. It all seems so surreal now, to picture her here in this dark lake, trying to find who she is, to gain control of her life for the first time. She wants to feel free, but the face in the reflection mocks her, it tells her it is too late for dreams, that she wasted her precious years on nobodies and nothingness, it starts to scream at her; yelling that she is nothing but rotting meat, that her soul mate will never be found! She begins to believe all these lies; she succumbs to the slowly decaying figure in the reflection. Her body begins to give, her face is sunken in like the reflection, her skin goes slack, and it begins to putrefy right before her eyes. She tries to cry, but her tears are long gone, wasted on the vultures that had preyed on her body leaving deep marks on her body, mind, and soul. Her skin begins to fade out, it sags, slowly her body is giving up; and with a strenuous lift of her head, and she looks at the face again, one last time, and sees a tiny glimmer of hope, an almost insignificant twinkle that if she would have blinked, it would have been gone. She looses herself to it, surrenders her soul, her heart and body to this small glimmer. It begins to grow, slowly engulfing her face in this beautiful glow. Her face is coming back; her reflection is looking like her! She is actually smiling again; her beautiful smile is here once again! She slowly rises, allowing the glow to completely cover her body. She raises her arms, laughing, tears of joy are pouring from her beautiful eyes. The putrefying flesh has become one with the rotting leaves under her feet. She feels invigorated, happy, and free! She actually IS free! And her prayer has been answered. She has become what she has always dreamed of-A beautiful Dragonfly! She finally has wings and feels free for the first time since she was born. She is a reflection of her old self, but better. She is no longer enslaved to anyone, she is master of her destiny and she is going to take this world and make it her own. She will have everything she always wanted. Her transformation has finally begun.

©Lizbeth Davis
October 12, 2007