John Berger, And Our Faces, My Heart, Brief As Photos
One
Once In A Song
A singer may be innocent
never the song. With its instantaneous eyes
opened on to the world
and its heart laid bare,
the song is brazen,
the song is newborn.
Only when it has quietened
can listeners resume by habit
the innocence of their age.
Two
When I open my wallet
to show my papers
pay money
or check the time of a train
I look at your face.The flower’s pollen
is older than the mountains
Aravis is young
as mountains go.The flower’s ovules
will be seeding still
when Aravis then aged
is no more than a hill.The flower in the heart’s
wallet, the force
of what lives us
outliving the mountain.And our faces, my heart, brief as photos.
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