the parabolic mirror

This is a Magpie Tales prompt by Tess Kincaid.

Below the surface
where lines from part-parabolas
encounter lines from me
the mirror shows
the me that might have... might still be.

Contours from a nearly-me,
half-familiar gestures
implying other lives
I might have lived
had I been free.

Then other images, like peas
in pods or siblings in a womb,
are thrust from other concave
surfaces
into my face.

They speak of subtle changes,
nudging contours up or down,
of rows of alter egos,
of how a features changes
at a twist in life or light.