The Faces of Facebook
 
Two heads, often as not,
press together under one name,
mugging, grinning, kissing
for yuks or for real.
It's one big circus,
whether or not anyone
lifts a red plastic beer cup
or delivers that goofy,
I've-got-a-buzz look
to the welcoming world.
 
No one's alone. No photos
of anyone studying statistics
or even holding a book. 
Even the rare black eye
or arm cast: played for laughs.
It's all thumping good music
and friends who may enter
without knocking.
 
And me? I'm the crow
on the tombstone, pondering
the black winds that will
swoop down their valleys
later if not soon, from mortgage
to biopsy, and numbers
continually erased
from the book. One
cross-country move
after another to fray
the bonds they here vow
shall be eternal.
 
So I ghost these scenes
I'm not part of, looking perhaps
to touch that one face
that is gazing across
a broad bay where
the storm is always brewing. 

David Graham

David Graham's oldest friend is Dorsey E., to whom he has been engaged since 1957. She is currently one of his 555 Facebook friends. His email is grahamd@ripon.edu, and you may find a gallery of his photographic art at https://www.instagram.com/doctorjazz/