I woke up this morning and looked in the mirror but the image staring back was not of me but of you. 
My eyes sparkled like yours the day your daughter graduated from high school. My smile with slightly parted lips and dimpled cheeks the size of craters, all signs of you. 

But, how can this be? 

I never saw these similarities before and now that you're gone I have nothing to physically compare them to. 

Could these signs of you have always been there eclipsed by your presence; I never saw. 
I now hold on to these similarities in me to remember you.  

Niknesha Hairston is the author of the poetry book The Journey. Currently, she is a NYC teacher who is working on her first novel.