From Each One Life

by Daisy Zamora

From each one life draws a face.

I’m not talking about cheekbones,
perfect noses, eyebrows, eyes,
wrinkled foreheads
sagging cheeks or
eyelids
but of what is impossible to hide
or fix with surgery or make-up.

I’m talking about the misery and horror
meanness and joy,
the cruelty or compassion
we see, without warning,
on someone else’s face
surprisingly our own.

—Translated by George Evans