No One Like Oneself

Standing before the mirror,
I have always felt
I need someone exactly like myself.

That person—
whose clothes conceal countless wounds,
whose entire life is stuffed with forgetting,
whose every deed is a room of flaws,
whose thoughts are scattered, life askew,
who stands always behind others, hidden in their shadows,
whose contentment never whispers that he could be better.

I thought no one like that existed anywhere.

Then one day I see—someone who thinks in exactly this way,
and when we meet, it happens as it should,
yet he decides
I am not the person he's been seeking,
because he finds not a single flaw in me.

I am still trying today to make my mistakes
seem unacceptable before him...