Beard

It fell to the floor snip by snip,
This old mantle brown and grey.
My wife had never seen my face
and even I had forgotten my lips, thin,
with a small wart in the right corner
I have become an archeologist digging
into the Forum grey earth
Surrounding a hidden place, pre-empire.
But the chin is not weak as I had feared;
the skin, pale from the hair.
They say that a sculptor removes the marble
from what already is there,
So imagine the Numina's surprise
When she awoke to the sculpting sounds,
Arose and looked around and realized
that she had a face with lips and nose
and was seeing through eyes,
formlessness left on the cutting floor
with the beard.


(Paul Decelles writing as Paula Dupre)