A Model Woman

She set out to become a model woman.
It was what her mother taught her.
But her mother’s models 
were rooted in the past,
mannequins really
and no longer in vogue,
so her attempts were confused.
Conformity was the issue
but to which age,
which youth
should she conform
now or then.
It took her a long time,
a lifetime.
A lifetime
of making up,
of trying on and discarding,
a lifetime of self discovery,
a lifetime
to throw away the wigs
and become herself.

First published in Nine Muses Press, November 7 2019A Question of Identity On her 90th birthday she looked in the mirror and tried to identify the face looking back. She felt the same as ever but the face, that was the mystery how could she connect the two, how she felt and how she looked. Perhaps a mystic would tell her…