My Nose

The air retreats each moment.
I feel it laugh
and march away from
the space around my nose.
All I am stops here.
My nose is my farthest outpost.
Here wilderness space begins.

I surround the only heart
I will ever encompass.
Heart of the table
Heart of the air
Heart of my wife
elude me.

In my mind
a disorderly army
finds it hard to breathe.
So I have raised
a white flag.
Naturally, it is fluttering
from my nose.
—Stephen Frank, “My Nose.”
Photography Credit (me!) by Mari Valen