Phrenology

The concrete nature of the face
inclines itself to support
certain artifices of character
as carved into the features-
the aquiline nose transformed
to discipline, or power,
the lips, when soft,
denoting sensuousness
that touch-thin line
between a smile
and sex.
To build such things
into a face
presumes stability
a certain predictability
that allows the cartilage to grow
at such a rate as to ensure
an equivalent visage to virtue.
It demands the mold,
still wet,
to change and cling
for the merest moment
birth perhaps
and then conform
forever more towards that form
which best connects
the skeleton and the self.
These things may be
but still the face
may grow to be
more artifice, than architecture.
The only sculptor known to shift
the structure of a skull
once stiffened into selfhood
is Love.