Poem 342

Reconfiguring the usual meaning of ‘brazen face’ … this reads as if written by a mature someone to their also older lover …

( I love the wonderful word unguent and how that describes the creamy grittiness of Brasso, the image of a plate underwater as a thing of beauty … circular stars is meant to evoke circular saws, green tang of metal perfectly captures that copper metallic smell for me … )

Your Face

You've got a brazen face
                                                     one made
of brass I mean
                                 one made to last

age is this gritty unguent
                                                   brasso of the years
shining and smoothing you
with infinite tiny gouges
                                                  you're beautiful
like a plate underwater
                                               you're strong
and sharp as the circular stars
                       cutting sparks off nothing

you carry your face upward
                                                        so much
falls into it
                     where are you putting
it all?
           when you sleep by me I smell
the green tang of metal
                                                when your face
catches the sun it blazes