How to Save Face

"A Midsummer Night's Dream" by Borda.deviantart.com

Some days

begin with

So many faces

to face.

We awaken to digits,

our delta hands

spreading to find

the pulsing alarm

to still it back

to sleep

The brain is yet

in mid-howl

of night terror

as the mind

rushes in to 

shush and

soothe

or fill with dread

by logos

and memory

of the hours

ahead.

Do not face

your own

or another’s

arrangement

of eyes, nose

mouth, chin

and their morning song:

the blink and sniff

and cough,

before

you face

a better page,

not bolting

straight from

sheets still pressed

into the cheek.

This page

of your own making

has come to you

softly

like a pair

of satin slippers

set down before

your bed, before

the royal feet

hit wood, stone, 

fiber, or soil.

This is your kingdom

of pulp and ink

to ride across

on a mad tear

of scribble

and illegibility

The lines of your

sovereign heritage

surround you

even as the first

toe pokes through

the hole in

this humbled

state of hearing

either

whisper or bustle,

first thing.

No matter which, 

you can suspend

their animus

just long enough

to remember

who you are

before the

daily being told

begins

The grace of your

exalted domain

announces you before

you recall your name,

that foreign word, 

attached to

the who of you,

mercifully

to be momentarily forgotten

as a curled slip

from a past night event

left in a best coat

pocket.

If need be,

set a fiery beast

to guard this 

morning note

as it quivers in

the air before you,

or simply draw a circle of chalk

on the floor around you,

or throw your apron up

over your head.

There are so many ways

to greet your lover within,

and the soul

conspires with you

Put hand to page

and feel its

smooth salutation

even before lids

open

and pull it close.

Your pen stirs up

a whirl of leaves

so that you can

see what you seek

hear what you call

find your courage

there, the sticking point

of your sword

that you will

come to gladly

fall upon

each

day

and wonder

at how you lived

before you did so

And now, all the faces,

Let them come

                -- by Lizbeth Leigh

                    

© copyright 2017 Guilded Lily Press

from a production of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream by Casey Wilder Mott, kickstarter.com