"beware : do not read this poem" - Ishmael Reed

Ishmael Reed is an American poet born in 1938. He is well known for his satirical poetry in criticizing the American society.

tonite, thriller was
abt an ol woman , so vain she
surrounded herself w/
          many mirrors

it got so bad that finally she
locked herself indoors & her
whole life became the
          mirrors

one day the villagers broke
into her house , but she was too
swift for them . she disappeared
          into a mirror 

each tenant who bought the house
after that , lost a loved one to
          the ol woman in the mirror :
          first a little girl
          then a young woman
          then the young woman/s husband

the hunger of this poem is legendary
it has taken in many victims
back off from this poem
it has drawn in yr feet
back off from this poem
it has drawn in yr legs

back off from this poem
it is a greedy mirror
you are into the poem . from
         the waist down
nobody can hear you can they ?
this poem has had you up to here
          belch
this poem aint got no manners
you cant call out frm this poem
relax now & go w/ this poem

move & roll on to this poem
do not resist this poem
this poem has yr eyes
this poem has his head
this poem has his arms
this poem has his fingers
this poem has his fingertips

this poem is the reader & the
reader this poem

statistic : the us bureau of missing persons re-
         ports that in 1968 over 100,000 people
          disappeared leaving no solid clues
          nor trace     only
a space     in the lives of their friends

Write from the start we can identify this poem as a horror story. For the first three stanzas, this poem tells us a story about a mirror haunted by an old woman who cause people to mysteriously disappear. There is no consistent meter or rhyme in this poem, but its erratic and mismatched structure is used for a specific purpose. In the first three stanzas telling us about the haunted mirror, it is very jerky with seemingly random splits in sentences and abruptly ends lines just how you or I would would feel when watching a horror movie with an erratic and fast paced heartbeat. The motif of mirror in this section is in an attempt to reflect the meaning of the poem with an identical reflection of our experiences. Going along this idea of reflection, Reed is attempting to liken the haunted mirror to this poem. The poem is personified and takes on characteristics of the mirror. It says this poem is drawing in the reader and consuming him, just as the mirror did to its victims. The parallel structure in the fifth stanza of this poem help strengthen the idea of parallel worlds between the world with the haunted mirror and our world with this supposedly "haunted" poem. Just as when looking into a mirror, you are seeing your own world but flipped around revealing the two sides of both these haunted objects. These objects seem harmless and even inviting from the outside but when we delve deeper and attempt to discover the true meaning, we realize the darkness and the ever-consuming animal within. The second to last stanza describes this beast within: "this poem has his head / this poem has his arms / this poem has his fingers / this poem has his fingertips" These few lines make it seem as if the monster is growing just as each of the lines is slowly growing in length line after line. Finally in the last line, when it talks about the disappearance of individuals every year, it uses physical spaces between words causing us as readers to feel as if something is missing just as the people are missing.