betty page eyebrows

betty page eyebrows,

high forehead, high cheekbones,

and a mouth like burnt sienna

scraped off a palate brush

onto a stone.

nothing I’ve ever done

has made any difference;

nothing I mean, not just

meeting your eyes

several times

as I sat at the counter

reading a farewell to arms,

you at a table, between a friend

and your beautiful young daughter ―

not just this and not this,

writing about it either; I mean

everything that came before

the first, and before the second,

and everything that will come after,

a lifetime like a crucible

so ineffectual it cannot even

melt the gold it is given.