Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Advice

May you always keep a fresh face to the world.
Resist the downward tug in your cheeks; recognize, see the way
the creases of your lips tend to pinch together, and fight it. Lift!
Keep your cheeks fresh and soft, like babies’ butts.
Or, get acne if you need to
and hold on to the embarrassment of not being ready for the world.
You’re best when you’re tender like that.
Wear your scars inside. Bury them
deep in your viscera, mark up your lungs,
your liver, your heart, your pancreas.
Feel them inside as much as you have to, as much as they mangle you up,
but then save them for the autopsy.
That is the secret to a clean face, to a forehead
with no thin lines, to a kind of lightness around your temples
that raises your lashes, opens your eyes, making them enormous orbs, deep and bright.