Кожа/Skin

Skin bears a geography of time.

It softens and furrows.
I’d not realised, of course:

I hadn't been looking.

Around the eyes first,

then the cheeks,

the upper lip –

a contour map,

a bloom of notches.

And then there,

in the hospital

recovery room,

that unutterably

untouched face,

new skin,

another geography

waiting to happen.

Image: Marina Shiderova; text: Tom Phillips