This is from a longer sequence called "The Million Plus--
A Meditation on Face."
"Every second a face.
The 60 in the minute.
The 3,600 in an hour.
The two and 1/2 billion in my projected life.
Each one, a face, the apparition of these faces.
The ones born every eight seconds.
The ones that die every 12.
The 'we' living, streaming between, each a face.
And I look at hers, my daughter's, held in my hands
and how, when sleeping beside me, she'd take my hand
and put it on her face.
And she is that face, the face that adds them all together.
And she is what the human race, human face, stands for in me.
A drop, a clot and its infinitesimal divisions,
seconds and faces, the human time here on Earth past
and future--
defaced, unfaced, redeemable-- held my hands
asking, what we'll do next together this afternoon?
As if that's guaranteed, as if I can take it on its own face,
as if I can any longer bear so much of this world reality,
so much of its face."