Faces

I have seen a face with a thousand countenances,

and a face that was but a single countenance

as if held in a mould.

I have seen a face whose sheen I could look

through to the ugliness beneath, and

a face whose sheen I had to lift to see how

beautiful it was.
I have seen an old face much lined with

nothing, and a smooth face in which all

things were graven.

I know faces, because I look through the

fabric my own eye weaves, and behold the

reality beneath.

Khalil Gibran

(Picture: Faces, Pavel Filonov)