nothing to mirth and back to nothing

faces they change

now stretched with laughter

minuscule                  writhing

                          and

glasses lenses smudged or glassless

shaken                         askew

                           astray

then humour’s mucus vapour-trail                    dis-
-sipates; the down-going;

mouths they relax

now split at the corners

lips lose their

wormlike                       tightness

                            a

grin and watery eyes and splintered

cheek                                wrinkles

                            soften

to fine traces, groups of mirthful faces              mel-

-ting to indifferent mush; passivity;

to       slack       tissue       

singing allusively

                                                  the brain’s lackluster

one look it remains

now marked by an overbite

eyebrows                          up

                             blush

mold still set in clownish likeness

next to

readjusted                        others

now what do you think
people think

                            seeing                                                  trans-

-figurations,

bluffs                  ripe

for calling then silence

what do you think of people

thinking             more

than they say

and do                                                                                you think

they’re thinking of you?