Warpaint Poem by Erin Cowart

Today I took off the war paint
Laid down the mask
And showed my face to the world

Not the face of my dreams
Not the smooth, unmarked skin of my youth
Not the face that you loved
When we first loved

But it is my face
Deeper lines around the eyes
A small down turning of the mouth
Probably from all the words
Heavy and dank

Brown spots from lazy afternoons in the sun
Green eyes like the grass we laid in
Nose as wide as the iridescent sky
We danced under

See this line here and that line there
Carved by laughter and tears
Markers of a life
Containing all the wisdom of age

Today I took off the warpaint
Because I am no longer at war
With myself or the world
And the mask covered everything that was real

See me
Let me see you- your face
And we can wade through the canyons and valleys etched there
Splash in the river of your tears
And live in a field of freckles
Under the shade of your eyelashes

Seeing each other as such
Can we ever not be beautiful