I’ll Be My Mirror

There was a tiny Asian woman screaming in the street today
And she was screaming at a person that she obviously hates
She was so loud we heard the screaming with our windows all rolled up
And we looked down at the street to see who she was screaming at

But there was no one on the sidewalk
So we all looked back at her
And we saw in her homeless hands she had a 1960s mirror
A pretty plastic girly one framed in a purple case
And she was screaming at herself
And she was spitting in her face

And we were scared and we were shaken
Waiting in the intersection
Looking in each other’s faces
Each one a shocked reflection

We laughed with nervous laughter at the crazies in the street
But it’s only cause we know that’s how we kind of want to be
And there’s a fraction of our brain cell chain that makes us what we are
One false move you’re in the mirror
Someone’s laughing from the car

Casey said she’d seen the woman half a dozen times
And that she has a bunch of mirrors
She has lots of different kinds
And I wondered what she’d shouted
And I wondered what she’d done
Then the light turned green and someone said
“We ought to put her in a song”

I feel sorry for that woman as she stormed off in a day
With a bitter frozen enemy who will never go away
And so many of us hate ourselves but never shout and rage
We never get to hold a mirror
We never turn a page

And I’m lucky I’ve got people who will hold me in the night
And I’m lucky that you love me
And I’m glad we never fight
And I’m lucky that I like myself
But late at night I doubt
So I’m scared to look at mirrors
Just in case I start to shout