A Portrait Painter's Lament Poem by James Smith

It's said that painters only paint a single face
Sometimes older sometimes younger, fat or thin,
To only have one model if it be the case
And use one nose, two eyebrows and one chin
Suggests a blindness to the world outside.
Though sensitive enough to creative thought,
Could we really think our eyes are open wide
To see, retain and comment as we all were taught?
When very young we drew a face, a simple round
To which we later added dots for eyes, for mouth a line.
Body, legs and arms with hands are shortly found
To make our faltering efforts more refined.
Maybe my morning mirrored face is the design
And basis for the portrait heads I know are mine.