"Twin Flame"

A poem by Christine Bode from Eden Redefined

Written on November 2, 2018

Twin Flame

I see my twin flame’s image in the dark side of a gold and gilded mirror
as he holds it to my face, so I can see my deepest beauty and greatest strengths,
as well as my ugliest prejudices.

I see myself in his shadow … curious, compelled to seek
the verity of his existence, and to know if my perception of him is real.
Aware that my romanticized projection may not be welcome, I am wary of this infatuation.

I dwell in the light on the other side of the mirror
but fascination with his knowledge and strange, unusual choices in life
keep me lingering about, just at arm’s length.

Intensely drawn to this man I hardly know, my intuition tells me we are not soul mates
but I can’t help but wonder what he’s here to teach me, and I am full of questions.
I sense that an existential earthquake is imminent.

I am in awe of his courage to live an alternative yet authentic lifestyle,
indulging in every deviant whim of which he can conceive, but
I’m repelled by his politics and self-absorption.

The yang to my yin has introduced me to parts of myself I’ve never known.
I feel like I’ve met him before, though I could swear it was in the pages of a horror novel.
An inkling that a fictional character has manifested makes me uneasy, distracted, even queasy.

What transformation is he the catalyst for in my life?
I sense an alchemical reaction, and I’m unsure about how much I want to change, but
he will show me what I most desire as well as what I most fear.

I am neither brave nor foolish enough to follow him any farther than that garden gate
of exquisite, ornamental iron because I can see the bloodstains that linger there,
and I’m afraid that blood is mine.

Twin Flame appears in my second volume of poetry, Eden Redefined, available here.