Mirror

Removing the layers of make-up 

I wear to the sets of movies 

where I now play sometimes a sister 

and sometimes a teary eyed mother 

to the same male stars I have danced 

with around trees, under the water falls, 

gyrating my then thin waist 

to the beats of a typical Bollywood song 

but a few years ago

I see those half hidden dark spots 

and the unwieldly crow's feet that 

crinkle the side of my tired eyes 

that no longer twinkle as they used to. 

-Neha Bansal

(Published in "Mosaic of poetic musings : contemporary women poets from India" edited by Seema Jain and published by Authors press)