EXPERT INTERIOR DESIGN HELP IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD MARJORIE DURST DESIGN CONSULTANT I CAN HELP YOU BRING YOUR THOUGHTS TOGETHER, CREATE A COHESIVE PLAN AND HOLD YOUR HAND THROUGH THOSE DARK HOURS OF DECISION MAKING ADVICE BY THE HOUR 512.452.1526 OLDER HOMES A SPECIALTY MARJORIE DURST@AUSTIN.RR.COM

I still work hard at keeping up a front
so that scared boy that lingers still
can't be seen. "Saving Face," they say
in Japan. Same thing. It's the idea
that when the front collapses, then
what's behind will be visible and condemned,
the dark truth of the self exposed
for the terrible eye of the world to
annihilate. So we save face, keep up
the front, deal in acceptable half-truths.
And the world spins on. And somewhere
ahead, the truth of death awaits and then
the front will collapse on itself and
the face vanish in the howling winds
of the cosmos and who knows? Maybe
we'll find ourselves relaxing for
the very first time.

History hath no enemy like a stricken tongue.
Whose family doesn't know?
We wonder why uncle, sister, pop and mom
went silent at the mention of . . . .
You fill in the blank,
the one who drank or had two faces, one to fear.
The one who took odd vacations and did. . . .
You fill in the blank,
the whispered thing, the name of which would
scald and rot the tongue.
What gene or crime or tragedy, what artistry or
passion lingers unspoken to arise at puberty or
at a time most inconvenient?
No law of God or country could rescind this no talk rule,
this malady of stricken tongue.
But when desire and fear meet face to face
we wonder, wonder if we. . . .
You fill in the blank,
and we ask, and ask, and write the words
nine feet high on the side of an underpass
un self-consciously legitimizing that which
makes us human.