In this raw and honest poem Suzanne Edgar captures that moment when reality walks all over the assumed image of the imagined-self.
…………………………………………………………………
GONE MISSING
Suzanne Edgar
……………………………………………….
I was at a noisy party
in a laughing, drinking crowd
telling anecdotes galore
mixed up with hissy gossip
and frequent risqué jokes.
When I did a mirror check,
I received a frightful shock.
Someone had taken my face!
I’d come there brushed and sleek
with lips of deepest pink,
my shining auburn hair
framed eyes like summer pools.
The effect was rather youthful,
I’d supposed when I arrived.
This was not the face
that met me in the glass.
Where had my image gone?
The cheeks I saw were red,
the bloodshot eyes were smudged
and my hair had lost its sheen.
I looked about in panic,
there was no one else in view,
could it have been borrowed
or taken by mistake?
That face I liked to wear
has never been returned.
…………………………………………………………………………
Suzanne Edgar’s book The Painted Lady is available @
the bookshop of the National Library of Aust and the
Paperchain Bookstore 34 Franklin St Manuka ACT.
Read extract here.
Poempig Blog 