The angle you don't usually see

You caught yourself from the side.

For a second you didn't recognize

the face that was staring back.

The angle was wrong.

The light was all wrong.

Your eyes looked unfamiliar,

like they belonged to someone else.

Then your brain caught up

and it was you again.

But there was that gap—

that moment between seeing and knowing—

where you were a stranger

to yourself.

You stood there trying to find

that angle again,

trying to see what you look like

when you're not expecting to see yourself,

when the reflection doesn't have time

to arrange itself into your face.