Echoes of beauty are everywhere,
Once elegant eyebrows now wedged
On her forehead like two coracles
Run aground on sallow shoals,
Expensive lipstick pasted on
By unsteady hands resting
On a pallid cream shawl.
She looks without seeing.
I smile without meaning.
Breath travels slowly over
The rolling gravel in her throat.
Fluttering lashes close like a crow
Shot from the sky. It strains
For the moon on its descent.
I cannot sit back all the way,
Unwilling to settle into the smell.
Following her lead,
I quietly slip away.
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