THE MANY WAYS THE FACE

faces us
didn’t faze me,
‘til one fine day (today!)
I faced the music,
and in and about
a brighting volte-face

I see him from his otherside,
the side that lets me
leave him alone
after decades.

That facies—
deceptive, decisive—
its spell ended,
the smiling palindrome
looks away,
and I am free to see
him simply as he was.

A slight turn (imagine!),
and what once unmade me
makes me now, not his echo-
praxia, but a glance
(let’s face it!)
down my own way.

- September 13, 2008
Doma