Faces

 

Age hides itself

until you need a new passport

or bump into a childhood friend.

Then the frantic effort

to find some familiar landmark

in that landscape:

eyes, mouth, smile;

digger life has shifted the earth

and you are lost.

Sometimes it's the voice 

you remember;

its call from the depths.

Sometimes, in the eye,

turn of a mouth, you find

the key that was lost in the grass.

And now, face to face,

with the truth of your own age;

you must smile and lie.