take more pictures

pause for a minute,
picture the face of someone you love

think of drawing them, describing them
to an artist, a policeman

what words would you use?
how reconstruct them?

what describes their particular softness?
how portray their individual grace?

what did they look like

when they looked at you?

can you reduce them precisely, perfectly,
to skin, eye, hair?

trace the line of their jaw?
shape of their smile?

ever seen the way
the light touches their skin?

pictures in our heads
so fragile, fleeing things

and faces,
faces, far too easy to forget.

(In memory of grandfather who, knowing this, marched us off to a studio for a family portrait. He died in an accident soon afterwards.)