From her mother’s face.

  for Kay, in memory of Geraldine

At two months, she absorbs her mother’s face,

all gentleness and giving;

smiles back without a care.

Young girl, she sees encouragement, pride,

reprimand or disappointment;

learning, reading that alphabet of lines.

As teenager, she must stretch the grain,

find different measures in new faces;

re-arrange the markers of her life.

Easy smiles and shared frowns;

in adulthood, she returns to the home

of her mother’s face.

And when those eyes are finally closed,

and the face is still, its full story written;

she carries her mother’s face onward.