Shaving My Winter Beard (by Dave Trueb)

SHAVING MY WINTER BEARD (by Dave Trueb)

She is an apparition As shrouded in mist As my early morning ceremonies And the mirror that frames My aging features Familiar yet foreign

Ritual and memory As incongruous a couple As ever we were She forever slim and carefree With wild locks and freckles Laughing sweetly at the silliness Of this nostalgia now growing grey Upon my once youthful face

These corse new hairs discovered daily Have grown through the winter As tangled as the vines She stands beside in my mind With her mud covered boots Berries in her hands Merry and full of faith In a world We never saw coming

I scrape away my winter's coat In a vain attempt To recover some scrap of my past Wander to the kitchen She looks up from her coffee A smile dawning Across the fog of her thoughts As she speaks “Hello, there stranger."

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