Germinal force of youth, nestled in flint
and cliffs, wadded with flesh and
bristles slid in that...face that frets,
fleets and sags, an afflicted skin that’s pricked
and acted on...armisticed then,
of a whim. Peaceable, seen calmer
after some hundred trips by the mirror—
by flat face see the chivalric face,
the chevalier and the Red Cross rider.
How it shades to the untoward grin,
cabal-joiner face, the face of extremities—
follic tides ease, arise, show baleful pits.
The bedrock brandished, formed in ivory slopes—
but then, that’s really all humor’s view.
Repose will give a well-content—and a will
to join present face to its first well-reasoned
proximate.
-2005
