Feel sad for the face
That I have lost
Long since burnt away
I do not remember a time without scars
This is my face now
I try to accept
Smile
But it is hard
Normally I do not look at it
But I feel it
The ridges under my fingertips
When I wash
Or the sun and the rain
Bouncing off the taut skin
Not absorbing
Into the stitched up skin
I look at her face
How smooth and soft
Young it is
Full of hope
I hope she remains without
A mark of her adventures
Written on her skin
Or in her soul
Perhaps like me it is a time
We cannot forget because
It is written on us
In us
It is our story
Unique and special
Perhaps we wouldn’t change
Our adventures
As if erasing the past would erase
Who we are now
Who we are settling into being
Seeing the flowers and cards
Smiling not weeping
Feeling something
Not nothingness
Like the burning
Which floated us off into an oblivion of pain
We have lost a great deal
But now we are filling in the gaps
Accepting our face
Our battered body
And we are reaching peace
An acceptance
A doorway into happier days.
