Life Masks

In art class we memorialized ourselves making plaster face casts
A time stamp to last over all our years to come
Our young vision of lives lived larger than lassoed moons
The mess of white handprints on the chairs, the walls
Sticky splatters on our clothes, all being evidence
Of our having been there capturing a moment
Catching us all at our early beginning to reach out
To coming days we’d live well beyond our breathless poses
Flat on our backs, what a gas, we’d laugh
As one more lay down, each after another
For application of the coat that would dry to stone
Sensing in our bones a claustrophobic twinge
All we mask makers growing faint
Under life impressions, gasps of air
Through plastic tubes to keep us going
While we gave up a part of our spirit in the dark
That became light again, we rising as from a brief sleep
Laughing about the wonder of how our mold would turn out