Joanne Limburg
The Nose on my Face
Someone hopes I don’t mind
them asking, but am I - ?
Suddenly
I’m sixteen again, spending
hours in front of my parents’ mirror,
holding my hand across the middle
third of my face, so as to admire
the inoffensive adequacy
of my eyes and mouth, when
they weren’t being overshadowed
by my nose, that was so ....
What was it about my nose? Did it
have a pushy way of forcing
itself into a room, a vulgar
nose-come-lately, embarrassing
and overdressed? Did it mark
its owner as a fleshy, suburban
princess condemned to a life of shopping
and eating and smothering sons? Was it
transparently over-emotional? Was it
lubricious, dishonest or dirty? Would it
forever spite my face, the kind
of nose that would tell the world that -
Yes,
I say. I am. And someone says
that’s funny, they’d never have guessed.
Page(s) 36
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