I have tried
so many times
to memorize your face.
But loving you, 
I have learned
that in one face
there are a thousand faces–
Revealed,
one by one,
by light and shadow,
the changing colors
of a thousand days.
The impressions of joy
and sorrow are marked
by lines that lift and pull.
There is the nuance of eyebrow
and the deepening grooves
of a lifetime of questions
answered and unanswered.
There is passion and compassion,
concentration and concern.
In the smile that I know so well,
there are things that I do not yet
fully understand.
If only I could,
I would photograph–
painstakingly, faithfully–
each detail.
But there is no film that can capture
the shimmer of your eyelids–
the palest of summer violets
somehow always,
day after day,
year after year,
in beautiful bloom.