rising stars / a book about the face

Dove's-foot Cranesbill (Mjuknäva - Geranium molle. Swindon, 1st May 2019

* Rising stars   * a star in the night mist
                                 * Night treetrunks
                           * a fleeing bike in traffic

* Vagabonds.
          charging phones
          sleeping in hoody


But when the face
         migrated into photos
did it fade from the earth, just a little?
   Was some intensity of faces lost then,
and to recapture it, you must veil . . . ?
-- There should be veiled men. --

We look at the record of your face, Ralph*,
      But it should be sometimes, only.
For the world lives
     and we need to live with our faces,
and life can never be seen.
   Yet we come to know each other
        we know living faces in the way that
          you know something without scrutiny

                         I know our faces,
and that's become who I am,
it's written all over my face too -- our life together.





* Ralph Bates, Swindon novelist (1899 - 2000). A black and white portrait in Brookhouse Farm, a pub in Middleleaze.