Faces and Souls / Paul Eldridge

Faces and Souls
Faces and Souls

Faces, faces, faces. . . An orgic dance of faces, An insane carnival of faces. . . Mouths and cheeks and noses, And a crumbled Heaven of eyes,- Eyes that shine and dim, Like endless summer-fields Of twinkling fireflies Upon some moonless night — Eyes that seek and grieve, And laugh and weep, And stare at last Like oval chips Of frozen glass. . . Faces. And beneath them Souls — Small fearing souls, Thin, hungry souls, Phantom sphinxes, Obscene and cynical — Souls yearning and sobbing, And dying. . . Souls that spew forever Like slimy Crustacea, Stony masks of faces And skulk beneath them. Faces and souls — In a mad dance, In a wild carousel — Faces and souls, An infinite desert Of tombs and silences. ..