Lyric

I stood before the mirror

Before the house was awake

My hand lifted first

But the glass made me wait

A comb beside the basin

A pin left out of place

Silver at the edges

Of an almost familiar face

The candle held me softly

But not enough to lie

I looked into the mirror

And missed myself by half a sigh

The mirror gave me almost

The outline of a face

A little too composed

A little out of place

She did not look wounded

She did not look saved

Only still enough to frighten

What the night had made

I lowered both my shoulders

She lowered hers too late

I touched the pearl at my throat

She followed after eight

One breath behind my movement

One thought behind my stare

She wore my calm more coldly

Than I knew how to wear

Her Reflection Arrived Late

One breath behind her eyes

I saw the woman I became

Standing in my borrowed ice

She did not look wounded

She did not look saved

Her Reflection Arrived Late

And wore my face like blame

The glass looked into me

With no intention to forgive

It found the rooms I kept intact

And asked me where I lived

I had arranged the damage

With such a steady hand

I did not see the shape it made

Until I saw her stand

I thought the house was changing

I thought the walls had learned

I thought the doors remembered

Every place he turned

But some part of the silence

Had been studying me too

And every graceful answer

Made another woman through

Her Reflection Arrived Late

One breath behind my eyes

Not a stranger, not a ghost

Just the cost of staying wise

She did not look conquered

She did not look afraid

Her Reflection Arrived Late

With all the calm I made

I was not the woman

Framed inside his view

But I was not untouched

By what I learned to do

Her Reflection Arrived Late

And met me in the glass

Not asking to be spared

Not letting me look past

I turned the candle lower

She faded after me

One breath late

Almost free