Sketching My Face From A Mirror Poem by RIC BASTASA

using a ballpoint pen i sketch my face
from the mirror

looking carefully on every line of my face
i let my pen run tracing
every year
of my past stopping
on some pores and hairs and moles
marking some
points of emptiness and hiding places
and foxholes
and burial grounds
and long boulevards
and tunnels
and plains and green fields and deserts
and mountains

they are all on my face
my eyes looking at my eyes
not completely
with disgust
the parameters and contours
of my past

on such a beautiful face as this
how can i ever fail
the next time
around