Changes And More Changes Poem by RIC BASTASA

don't you notice the changes
every second every moment when we face
each passing hour each passing wind?

every pore opens and then closes every second
words that hurt, silence that stabs, feigned smiles
suppressed screams, erasures of the mind,

fleeting glances, a falling lock of hair,
growing nails pushed and pushed by each cuticle
slanting eyebrows that return to its shape like a wave
a ripple that shuts up, a crooked line of an ant's trail
that the sands and winds conspire to cover and conceal

all these, including the changing hues of the seasons
all these, you do not fail, you must not fail,
they must touch you through your smell your touch your sight.