Reverse Images
Copyright © 1997, 2005
Jason Lester Atkins
985 Fleet Drive, #347
Virginia Beach, VA 23454
All Rights Reserved.
We manufacture and arrange
Our reflected mirrored faces
After a certain age.
But before reaching this certain age,
A beautiful face
Furnishes open passports for "Joyful Journeys."
My first face memory of mama
Was putting finishing touches
On her take out face
And pausing one last moment
To arrange a practice look -
Widening her eyes to gaze
Into romantic distances -
Spreading her raspberry coated lips
Into a weird close mouthed smile
Creating someone I didn't know.
When she died at eighty
They painted a mask image
From an old photo copy,
Still using the raspberry lipstick.
The face smiling at me
I had never known in life.
We cannot see our real faces
As each emotion carves
A different mouth, eye, jaw set.
We cannot see our envy, fear,
Doubt, joy, pride, loss, lust,
Sculpturing the emotion of the moment
And flashing back in haste
To arrange our new images.
Faces are refined to give pleasure
For one instant only.
Try looking through photo albums
To find the picture of you being good
Or, try to steal your image back
From an old college yearbook.
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