I reach for the word—

mirror [window] window [mirror]

Glass reflects. Glass transmits. The brain knows they're the same before language splits them.

Standing at the glass
[the brain tracking aperture not name]
seeing surface as surface
[structure before semantics]
the swap isn't error
[it's recognition]
both frame sight
[both create boundary]
both involve looking and being looked—

When mirror becomes window to alternate self
[the face I'm watching isn't mine]
when window becomes mirror reflecting distortion
[the street beyond shows me back to myself]
I can't tell if I'm inside trying to see out
[or outside trying to see in]
the glass is passage
[the glass is barrier]
permeability means neither surface holds
[both surfaces open]
and I'm trapped
[and I'm free]
in the space between—

Seeing myself seeing myself
[in the mirror] [or window] [in the mirror that shows] [the window beyond] [which reflects] [the mirror where I'm standing] [watching myself watch] [the recursion folding] [inward] [outward] [the distinction collapsing] into [substrate] into [glass as glass] the brain refusing [mirror] refusing [window] tracking only [boundary that opens] [surface that holds] [aperture] [passage] the semantics dissolving into [structure] [transparency] [reflection] [both] [neither] [mattering because] [doesn't matter because] [the face I see] [isn't mine] [is mine] [is watching] [is watched] and I'm still—

Eventually I just say glass and point.