FUNNY FACES

my girlfriend makes funny faces
high drama
shakespearean
enough to make
you laugh and laugh

unless you catch a funny
face at an awkward moment
when your thoughts are far
away in time or place
and then...

and then you'll find yourself
in London, 1666, with 6,000 dead
each week from the plague, and
a toothless man on the edge of town
making funny faces at the moon and
God, and trying to get the joke.

or at Aunt Mary's birthday
when she makes a funny face for
the camera, and you suddenly remember
the day she buried her twins.

and then you shake your head and
bring it home so you can smile and
laugh at the funny faces your
babies made when you tried to
feed them solid food, for the
first time.

and those funny faces make you
laugh and laugh and laugh.