“your face has left my face”

by Jason Melvin

the mirror fails to hold a memory

for years     I watched you brush my teeth

you no longer live there

I am older than you     Father

your children stuck in childhood

men you cannot meet

I see reflected    an aging man

     salt and pepper chin

crow stomps marched around eyes

Your face      stayed young  

reduced to photographs

spotty memory

Jason Melvin is a father, husband, grandfather, high school soccer coach, and metals processing center supervisor, who lives just north of Pittsburgh. Most of his poems come to him while riding his lawnmower around the yard. His work has recently appeared in A Thin Slice of Anxiety, Roi Faineant and others. He was nominated for Pushcarts by Outcast and Bullshit Lit.  He was named second runner up for the Heartwood Poetry Prize 2021. He can be found on Twitter @jason5melvin and on his website at www.jasonmelvinwords.weebly.com.