Read an Excerpt
The Face
A Novella in Verse
I.
I used to live there, but that was
Before yesterday. Yesterday is so boring, don't you think?
Even my black trench coat thinks so, & it's very sophisticated,
Having once belonged to Dennis Hopper before I found it
On the used rack at Animal House. Ron the owner says, fingering
The shiny ink of the lapels, "Dennis Hopper." "Cool," I say.
So into the bright day I walk out like the night. "Face it,"
Toni says when she sees me later
At the sushi counter at Hama, "Dennis Hopper you're not." "OK," I say --
"But the spicy tuna's terrific today." Which is why today
Is better than yesterday, don't you think? I said that to myself, not
To Toni or Ron or anybody. I said to myself, Yesterday is still so boring;
When I used to live there it was boring & even before yesterday
It was boring -- I mean, even before I knew it was boring,
Before yesterday -- & if I still
Lived there I would probably think it was boring. But today ...
Today, here with you standing right in front of me like
The body of a shadow or like a shadow naked as a body,
Like a woman dressed in a body naked
As a shadow, like a shadow undressing before a mirror, like yesterday,
Like a mirror with a shadow & a trench coat ... Well, here, today, as
We both undo the loose belts of
Our shadows, our trench coats, our bodies, here with you ...
It's really never boring. Not today, no, & not even before
yesterday.
The Face
A Novella in Verse. Copyright © by David St. John. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.