Greacen019

Faces

Faces: sun-shielded, indoor faces sprout everywhere,
Cinemas, bus queues, lifts in department stores;
Faces sprayed with the pallor of the city-bound,
Waxen as dolls in tenement attics;
Faces on whom the spilled rouge of apples
Reminds one of the unending Aprils of childhood,
When lilac was as mysterious as perfume of Arabia;
0 the unforgettable fragments of unburied childhood!
Faces at windows, dismayed behind lace curtains,
Faces of the unadventurous and meek;
Faces of the arrogant, walking where angels wince;
Faces of country cousins, town truants, anxious aunts:
The face of a typist, Helen, in glum suburban beauty,
Once seen in a cobwebbed moment, always remebered:
Faces of the dead, the mask serene, contorted:
The living face of poetry, the all-enduring image.