The Memory of Light

by Jay Coral


Lucy snapped a self portrait
on the bathroom mirror
some said her irises were too slow
to react to the blinding flash
she was wide-eyed
to the ovoid clock
that melted at 3:00 a.m.
the white walls behind her
were warped like rippling waves
and the shake of the camera
produced an oblique double
some said it looked like her mother.